Memorial Day is a special time for Americans who have lost loved ones to the service of our country. The families and friends of the more than 4,000 American service members killed in Iraq since 2003 share a special bond rooted equally in grief and pride, emotions we will share as we mark Memorial Day once again this year.
This Memorial Day is particularly salient for me this year as I remember the life of my friend and colleague, Major Alan Rogers. As many people now know, Alan was killed in Iraq by an IED on January 27, 2008. According to his commander, he shielded two others from the blast, who likely would have been killed were it not for Alan’s bravery. Alan was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery on March 14th, 2008, in the presence of more than two hundred grieving but proud friends, fellow soldiers, and family members.
I knew Alan through my work here at Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and through our mutual activism in the DC Chapter of American Veterans for Equal Rights. He was a student at Georgetown University, pursuing a master’s degree through a prestigious Army fellowship program, when I first met him.
Because of my familiarity with the legal ins and outs of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, a bill that would repeal that law, Alan interviewed me for his final paper for school. I used to chide him for being so “out” to so many people, and worried that some day the fact that he was gay would get back to the military and spell the end of his career. I worried that his choice of topic for his final paper might raise eyebrows, and cause him to be discovered. But he seemed fearless, confident that he’d make it through his career without his sexual orientation getting in the way. In the end, I guess he was right.
When I first learned of Alan’s death through an email I received at work from a mutual friend, I was stunned. I walked dazed into the office of a good friend and colleague and cried bitterly. I cried because none of us would ever see Alan’s beautiful smile again, except in photographs and in our minds’ eyes. I cried because it was unbearable to think of this beautiful and gentle person being ripped apart by an IED in a foreign land. I cried because Alan was so good. He was one of the kindest, most generous, thoughtful, genuinely good people I have ever known. And he was gone, and nothing would ever change that.
Read more:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment