TEAGUE, Texas — The town of Teague came together Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil to honor Sgt. Maj. James G. Sartor, who died from his injuries Saturday after a Taliban attack on a tank in Afghanistan.
The vigil was held at Veteran's Remembrance Park.
Before the ceremony, the Teague community worked to honor him. There were hundreds of flags lining the road on Main Street on Tuesday. The town had just taken down the flags from the 4th of July, but when the people heard the news about Sartor, they put them back up and took extra steps to show him respect.
"We chose to do them at half staff in honor of him because he is our local hometown hero," Teague City Administrator Theresa Prasil said. "Blood doesn't make family, and so in a small community such as Teague, a lot of that we may not be, but we are family and we make sure that we take care of each other."
Prasil said Sartor graduated from Teague High School in 1997.
Sartor joined the Army in June 2001 and was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division. He was deployed to Iraq the following year. He was a Green Beret in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010.
Sartor deployed to Afghanistan in 2017 and 2019.
According to the Associated Press, these are Sartor's awards and decorations with the Army:
- Bronze Star Medal with three oak leaf clusters
- Defense Meritorious Service Medal
- Joint Service Commendation Medal
- Army Commendation Medal with three oak leaf clusters
- Army Achievement Medal
- Presidential Unit Citation Award
- Joint Meritorious Unit Award
- Valorous Unit Award with two oak leaf clusters
- Meritorious Unit Citation with one oak leaf cluster
- Army Good Conduct Medal with six knots
- National Defense Service Medal
- Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
- Afghanistan Campaign Medal with Campaign Star
- Iraq Campaign Medal with 4 Campaign Stars
- Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal
- Global War on Terrorism Service Medal
- Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon with numeral 5
- Army Service Ribbon
- Overseas Service Ribbon with numeral 2
- NATO Medal
- Special Forces Tab
- Ranger Tab
- Combat Infantryman Badge
- Senior Parachutist Badge
- Special Operations Diver Badge
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