Yesterday, I received an FB message that stated ” Mrs. Van Hine, My name is RH and I am a State Trooper with the Texas Highway Patrol. I currently am serving as a K9 Handler for my Department. The reason I am trying to contact you is not to bother or annoy you, but to tell you about my K9 partner. He is a 3-year-old Yellow Lab who is trained in narcotic detection. I went through 3 months of training with him and trained him from start to end. We have been partners and friends for almost 10 months now. He was bred and raised by the TSA K9 program and adopted by my department. Their program named all of these animals after the American Heroes who gave the ultimate sacrifice on 9/11/01. My K9 partner is named after your husband, “Van Hine”. After learning about the origin of his name, I began to research his namesake, your husband. I just want to say it is an honor to have him named after your husband and to have it written on the side of my patrol car for everyone to see. Everyday I get someone who asks why that name is on the side of my patrol car and I tell them the importance of it and try to explain the story that I have read to show the true American Hero who gave everything to save others…”

Bruce would smile about this. He loved dogs especially big dogs. He would say he wasn’t a hero. He was just doing his job. On Father’s Day, I would like to say thank you to all those men who have done and are doing their “jobs” to be fathers to their sons and/or daughters.  I know I was blessed to be the daughter of James R Clark Jr. and the wife of Bruce Van Hine.  And thank you RH for letting me know about Van Hine.