Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Just got word of this, went over and grabbed this from The Conservative Revolution:

A school district near Austin, TX wants to name a new high school there Vandegrift High School after a fallen Marine who graduated in 1999. He was killed in Iraq serving his country, and the local school board voted to name a new high school after him. This is a great gesture of appreciation. But unfortunately some lunatic leftists are protesting this decision. Please contact the Leander ISD to let them know you support their decision, despite what a vocal, anti-American minority of fringe activists think.

Call the school district at 512-434-5000. Fax a letter to them at 512-434-5398.

Email them:

don.mccall@leanderisd.org
don.hisle@leanderisd.org
elizabeth.frey@leanderisd.org
grace.jordan@leanderisd.org
russell.bundy@leanderisd.org
will.streit@leanderisd.org
jim.sneeringer@leanderisd.org
Superintendent@leanderisd.org

The local school board is scheduled to discuss the matter again Thursday evening. The resolution originally passed unanimously. Please support this school board and encourage them to honor this fallen hero.

UPDATE: Many of you have written the school board and superintendent. Thanks!

Here is the response I got from the Superintendent.

Mr. Steinhauser,

Thanks so much for your e-mail communication. The Leander ISD school board did indeed name our fifth high school “Vandegrift High School” at the June 19th meeting.

Matt Vandegrift was an honor student who exemplified the ethical behaviors that we teach and model for our students. In addition, he volunteered to defend you and me — and our nation — dying in this service. We, too, are proud of Matt, a feel that he will serve as an inspiration/role model for future Vandegrift High School students.

I believe that Vandegrift High School is a name that will inspire our young people, and a worthy choice.

Thanks, again, for your input.

Bret Champion

Bash here…below is a story that appeared July 4th in the Austin Statesman…

Friday, July 04, 2008

He was a top student and an athlete who excelled at almost everything he tried. Now, Matthew Vandegrift, a 28-year-old Marine first lieutenant who died April 21 from combat wounds he suffered in Iraq, will have a high school named after him.

The Leander school board voted unanimously last month to name the district’s fifth high school Lt. Matthew Vandegrift High School.

“Matthew was a very unassuming guy,” his father, John Vandegrift, said last week, reacting to the school district’s decision. “All he would have done was blush.”

Leander school board President Don McCall said: “He was the first of our graduates to die in the war on terror. This was the ideal way to honor him, the military and all the people who protect our freedom.”

As a teenager, Vandegrift made high grades at Leander High School, graduating with honors in 1999.

“Matthew loved the Leander area and had lots of friends here,” his father said. The family moved from the Steiner Ranch neighborhood to Colorado shortly after Vandegrift’s graduation. But Matthew and his younger brother, Barrett, who graduated from Cedar Park High School, frequently traveled back to Leander to visit their high school buddies.

“They were always going out to the lake (Lake Travis) and doing things,” said John Vandegrift, 63, a retired Xerox Corp. executive. “Their ties were very strong.”

After high school, Matthew Vandegrift enrolled at Texas A&M University, graduating again with honors and a degree in international business. His membership in the Aggie Corps of Cadets bolstered his interest in joining the Marines after graduation.

But a physical mishap threatened that dream.

An ardent outdoorsman and runner, he injured a knee ligament and had to have delicate surgery.

“It took Matthew about a year to recover from the surgery,” his father said. “He wanted to enter the Marines. The recruiters told him they had never seen a recruit pass the physical after having that type of injury.

“But Matthew told them, ‘This recruit is going to pass it,’ ” John Vandegrift said. Matthew Vandegrift underwent physical therapy, joined a health club and ran every day near the family’s home in Colorado to strengthen his knee.

“That determination was just a part of his character,” his father said.

Another important part of his son’s personality was the ability to analyze and make choices.

“When I was a kid, I got a lot of spankings from my father when I did something wrong,” John Vandegrift said. “So when I became a father, I decided to raise my boys by offering them choices. When Matthew and Barrett were fighting over a toy, for example, I would sit them down and tell them they had to figure out a way to share that toy. And after talking it over, they would come to me with the answer that one of them would play with it for 10 minutes and then the other would play with it for 10 minutes, and that way they could both enjoy it.”

Matthew Vandegrift’s carefully crafted regimen of rehabilitation paid off, and he was accepted into the Marines in 2005. In August 2007, he shipped out to Iraq as an infantry officer.

His father knew the worst had happened when two military officers appeared at the door of the family’s Colorado home in April.

“I told them, ‘Come in. I know why you’re here,’ ” his father recalled.

Vandegrift’s mother, Mary Jane, is a flight attendant for Continental Airlines. John Vandegrift met her at an airport in Houston, where she had landed after a flight from London.

“The minute Mary Jane saw me, she guessed what had happened,” John Vandegrift said. “She said, ‘Oh, no. Not Matthew. He was so special.’ And then she broke down.”

Matthew Vandegrift is buried in a military cemetery at Fort Logan, Colo., near Denver. The high school bearing his name is scheduled to open in 2010 near the intersection of RM 620 and RM 2222, south of 3M Co. headquarters.

(Statesman)

Nods to Katie O’Malley.