Plaque unveiled honoring Elizabeth Laird, the Fort Hood 'Hug Lady'
The woman said to have hugged hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers leaving for deployment from Fort Hood, Texas, now has a permanent presence at the site where she had long wished them well.
The woman said to have hugged hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers leaving for deployment from Fort Hood now has a permanent presence at the site where she had long wished them well.
A plaque in honor of Elizabeth Laird, known as the "Hug Lady," was unveiled Monday at the Robert Gray Army Airfield in Killeen, Texas, three years after her death. It was placed by the door of the facility's deployment room.
"You feel the embrace long after the hug," Col. Myles Caggins told Fox 7. "You think on those days when you're lonely or hot, or boring or scary, that somebody cares about you, at least one person."
Maj. Gen. Lester Simpson, Elizabeth Laird and Command Sgt. Maj. John Sampa at Fort Hood’s Robert Gray Army Airfield in September 2015.
Caggins was one of the many soldiers on the receiving end of Laird's hugs between 2003 and 2015, during which time she didn't miss a single flight in or out of the base.
Before her death, Laird told Fox News from her hospital bed the hugs were "my way of thanking them for what they do for our country.
"I wasn't hugging in 2003. I used to just shake their hands," she said. "But one day, a soldier hugged me, and that's the way it started."
FORT HOOD'S 'HUG LADY' DIES AT 83
The plaque in her honor says Laird will be "forever remembered for a priceless gift that was invaluable to the Fort Hood Community."
A private group is currently raising money for a statue of Laird, but her daughter Susan Dewees-Taylor told Fox 7 the most important thing is that the hugs don't stop.
"We as a whole, when we see somebody, we should go up there and hug them and thank them for all they do," she said.
The Fox News “Proud American” truck, recently seen in Charleston, S.C. (Fox News)
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Fort Hood Commanding General Robert White said Laird probably hugged more than 500,000 troops on their way to and from deployments.
"Put that in perspective, the active component of your Army, is not yet even at 470,000, she hugged the entire Army over 12 years she was doing this," he said.
Fox News' Tyler Olson and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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