Sister of Fallen Green Beret Calls Out SOFREP for Releasing Video of Soldiers’ Deaths

You don’t deserve to be called out by your names because to me, you aren’t human. You’re thoughtless, careless, disrespectful, and egocentric. You took the lives of four heroes and exploited their deaths for what? To get more clicks on your website? To turn the SF and Gold Star community upside and cause an outrage? The same exact people who you endured torturous years training to protect, you turned against.

We are all well aware that this war isn’t glamorous and we are very well aware of the fact that ISIS is an uncompromising and aggressive enemy. So why, I ask, would you give them exactly what they want and broadcast something you, as a Green Beret, knows shouldn’t be exposed? Why would you purposely attack the families of these soldiers by sharing something so gruesome and morbid a mere 5 months after their loved one’s death?

As a Gold Star Sister, I am appalled. I can also assure you that they aren’t even close to finding closure or even an ounce of acceptance of the deaths because they’re never going to. They’re never going to understand why it had to be THEIR son, THEIR brother, THEIR husband, THEIR dad. Do you know what you did for them? You took whatever hope they had of healing and shattered it. Because for the rest of their lives they have to relive in their minds every single day that vision that you handed them. It’s been almost 5 years since my brother was killed in Afghanistan.

I don’t know what his death looked like and I certainly do not ever want to know because I want to remember him alive and happy, not being gunned down by a coward. Yes, I used the same description for both you and ISIS. I did that because you have identical mannerisms. You take something so precious to this Earth and wreak agony on the families while cowering behind a keyboard; with no physically debilitating consequences.

The only difference is the other cowards are ready to die for their acts. Had my brother been wearing a GoPro (which we can all agree should be used for investigative reasons, not exploitation reasons like you assume) and some callous, idiotic SF news outlet such as yourselves, released his footage I can promise you that justice would be served. Who are you to make this decision? Who are you to tear down a family even more than they’ve already been torn down? Who are you to not remove that video after all the harm you caused? And most importantly, who are you to proudly display your long tab after all of this? You should be ashamed to call yourself a Green Beret because Green Beret’s don’t harm family, they take care of family.

This has been very difficult to write because of that reason. Gold Star Families don’t expect this from their brothers. And as a community I demand you apologize to each family member and make this better. My brother’s legacy will not be tarnished because you decided to make a bad decision on behalf of all the men and women we have lost in this war.

It’s not about what you think the world needs to know and see about this war, it’s about dignity and respect. That’s what these men deserve after being brutally murdered while protecting your rights to do such a foolish thing. I sincerely hope you come to your senses and rectify this horrible act of indecency and immorality. The names we will, however, be speaking are the ones that died for this war on terrorism while we have domestic terrorists like you running a circus around their last breaths.

I think I can speak for us all when I say, shame on you.

Megan McGill-West

Surviving Sister of SSG Timothy McGill KIA 21 Sep 2013

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