Fallen Frisco Soldier's Family Strives To Place Holiday Wreaths At Every DFW National Cemetery Gravesite
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ARLINGTON (CBS11) — A Frisco family is making a push this holiday season to have a wreath placed at every gravesite at DFW National Cemetery, including one at their son's.
"I think he would be proud of us that we are here not just to remember him but to remember all," Mary Bush said. "That's what he would have wanted."
Her son, U.S. Army Cpl. Peter John Courcy, was killed six years ago by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan.
Courcy, a Frisco High School graduate, was 22-years-old.
"Peter was about life," his father, Chris Bush, said. "He really lived it fully and people enjoyed being around him."
The Bushs said when they discovered six years ago donations for national Wreaths Across America program for the DFW National Cemetery added up to less than 50 wreaths, they wanted to change that. Ever since, the Frisco couple has taken it upon themselves to lead the push to increase awareness and donations about the program.
Last year more than 10,000 wreaths were placed at gravesites at the cemetery in Arlington. It was a dramatic increase from just a few years prior, but Chris and Mary Bush said it was still woefully short of 44,000 needed to have one at every gravesite.
"We get phone calls from families thanking that their soldiers got a wreath," Mary Bush said. "But we also get phone calls from the ones asking why their soldier did not get a wreath."
Eventually the Bush family hopes they will not have to answer that question.
At $15 per wreath, donations can be made at the Wreaths Across America website. The deadline is Dec. 1.
Then on Dec. 12, military cemeteries across the country will place the wreaths at the gravesites. The public is invited to DFW National Cemetery to help set out the wreaths on that day.
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