Troops Respond to "You're Not Defending Our Freedoms"

Reader Feedback
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Jun. 02, 2011

"As a soldier, separated as of April of this year, who served two tours in Afghanistan, I agree and appreciate your open letter. I am a member of the Oathkeepers, have been since close to their inception. Many of my fellow soldiers are beginning to open their eyes and understand everything you mentioned in this article. If only we had more power to make changes. Just before the memorial weekend, I got the news that the sister unit that replaced our unit in Afghanistan lost six people in an IED. I still don't know the names of the deceased, but i still have several friends in that unit. Now their families have to live on without them. Children will have to grow up not knowing their fathers.

It was a horrible feeling when I came home and my young daughter didn't know who I was and hid behind her mother as though I were an evil stranger trying to steal her away. Some days I wish I could regain my innocences of war and the death associated with it.

Thank you again for your open letter. I have already forwarded to every soldier I know as well as my neoconservative father. We'll open their eyes, even if we have to do it one at a time.... "

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