After Pat's Birthday

Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, has written a powerful, must-read letter

By Kevin Tillman

It is my brother Pat’s birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after.

It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military.
He spoke about the risks with signing the papers.
How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people.
How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition.
How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice… until we get out.

Much has happened since we handed over our voice:
Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people,
or to the world,
or harbored terrorists,
or was involved in the September 11 attacks,
or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger,
or had mobile weapons labs,
or WMD, or had a need to be liberated,
or we needed to establish a democracy,
or stop an insurgency,
or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is.
Something like that.

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