Twenty-two. An age where most of us don't even know who we are yet. Typically, young men at this age are still on campus prepping for graduation, competing on the Playstation with buds and eyeballing the upcoming job market. Not Tyler Trahan. Tyler was a focused and determined young man who knew exactly what he wanted to do at 19 years of age. He wanted to do his part to defend his nation.


His dad Jean Pierre would call me up, on-air and off, to give me updates of his son's progress once he graduated from the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. Listening to Jean, I began to wonder if he might have been embellishing his kid's ability and maybe he was seeing his son strictly through the eyes of a loving father. You couldn't have blamed me as he told of Tyler's meteoric rise and how stunned his superiors were at his unassuming capabilities. Within weeks Tyler was given an amazing option; Annapolis or Navy SEAL training. Being who he was, he chose  to pursuit the toughest training a human can endure; SEALs. From there he ended up in Iraq, among other things trying to make the roads safer for the people of Iraq and for all who used them. He was a highly trained ordinance specialist.  An elite "bomb squad" expert.

Of course all this turned out to be true and this proud dad exaggerated about nothing. This young man who was a stand-out athlete in multiple sports, who was popular and well liked in his hometown and who was adored by his family, was representing Freetown in a way the town will be proud of throughout the test of the nation's future. A life full of  a hopeful and brilliant future was cut short. The local kid with storybook gifts will come home in a heartbreaking and tragic way.  Tyler was killed in action in the Al Anbar province by a roadside bomb last Thursday. While the specifics of what happened have not yet reached me, it is likely he was trying to defuse one of the thousands of IEDs that have plagued the torn country since 2004. At the time of this writing, Tyler's parents are personally guiding his body back home to Freetown to a mourning hometown.


US Navy SEAL Tyler Trahan Born on May 3, 1986 -  Died fighting for his grateful nation, The United States of America, on April 30, 2009 in Iraq.

While I don't know Tyler's dad Jean Pierre all that well, I can tell you that this man loved his son as much as any dad ever loved his child. I could hear it in his voice and see it in his eye. I don't know his mom Maureen and while I look forward to meeting her, I do not look forward to now having the obligation to thank her and offer her the inadequate words of a stranger who can only imagine the grief behind the pride she now bears.

Who knows how many lives Tyler Trahan saved by combatting terrorists and defusing their cowardly weapons that kill and maim adults and children with the same hateful indifference? Who knows what great contributions he would have made in the future? All I know here is that I normally find myself teaching twenty-two year olds how to act and react to life. This kid from Freetown, Tyler Trahan, taught us all how far one can go with nothing but their natural gifts endowed by our creator. Thank you Tyler for defending my country and my family.

God above and Lord Jesus please bring this son of Freetown and of America to Glory.
Please bring comfort to his family that this world cannot hope to provide at this time.
Let his community remember and honor him for his rightful place in history.

"Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." Matthew 5:9