Friends and Family Honor Memory of Veteran Killed by Midland Texas Train Tragedy
(San Antonio, Texas – December 15, 2012)
Almost a month after a Union Pacific freight train plowed through an annual parade event honoring wounded veterans and their wives in Midland, TX, hundreds of friends and family gathered Saturday in San Antonio, TX for a memorial to one of the four who lost their lives in the November 15 tragedy.
Sergeant Joshua Michael and his wife, Daylyn, were on board the second of two flatbed semi-trailer trucks, each being used as a parade float and conveyance for a dozen combat-wounded veterans and their wives, when the train struck it at 62 mph on Midland’s Garfield Street crossing of UP tracks.
“When he saw that the situation was going to be gravely serious, he pushed his wife out of the way to save her,” declared Bob Weber of the Military Order of the Purple Heart in San Antonio. “That’s Sergeant Michael. He died to save his family.”
Even though Daylyn Michael said that it is still too soon for her to be able to talk about the events of November 15, she could still recall that her husband felt honored to be a part of the Midland “Show of Support” parade for wounded warriors that day.
“He was honored to be invited down there’” said Daylyn of the Midland event, “and he was having the time of his life.”
“He was an amazing man,” continued his widow, who was accompanied by the couple’s two children. “He served his country, served his family, and helped everybody. He was a paramedic. He loved life!”
Sgt. Michael had served two deployments to Iraq, and had been wounded in battle twice.
