AJ shows us how to be a man about it. (Updated)

Aj is a soldier.  He's the type that whose body you'd expect to step over post-battle at the Alamo.  He is probably the finest example of a border ranger out there and in my opinion, a damn fine human being. 

He was always a quiet guy and at our first meeting, I didn't peg him as a nationalist until after we swapped a few jokes.  AJ was loyal to JT sure, but more so to the mission at hand.  JT gave him a lot of lip too, which he patiently endured.  The man could patrol all day in 100 degree heat and stop to change a tire in five minutes.  All that considered, he was a friend to everybody out there.  Without him, we'd have spent more time trying to make it to the freeway on foot than doing what we had set out to do. 

Aj said the most I'd ever seen him say on his facebook page today.  It looks like he has turned and  faced the demon looming at our backs since the start.  His post is in response to the article on the Veterans Today site which initially gave us a glimmer of hope. 

"After reviewing the 9-11 recordings in their entirety, I request that this article be amended in respect to Lisa and her family. I can verify it is her voice, and after the 1st gunshot, you can hear JT say "You fucked up" before moving to kill Lisa. Its with a sick and heavy heart that I say that JT dishonored himself and betrayed us all, but mostly he betrayed Lisa, who took him in during some of his darkest days. He betrayed Amber and Hiott, who tried to help him with his campaign, and patrolled with him, and betrayed the innocent, little Lily, who was only just beginning her adventure through life, all people he had sworn to protect."

 

For someone who doesn't talk much, he said it all.  The sadness of all this is crushing.  But we have to face it for what it is now.  I respect AJ and I know he'd never go off half-cocked on anything, much less something as important as this. 

I'll never, ever get the image of that little girl's face from my mind.  She'll be there in my dreams and thoughts for the rest of my life.  But we'll continue on. 

They say in every life a little rain must fall.  I guess we're in a downpour with zero visibility right now. 

If AJ wants me to, I'll take down his post.  It just hit me as something that needed to be said at this point. 

UPDATE:  AJ asked that I add this to the post. 

Yeah, just put an addendum in there: JT was a strong, outspoken, and natural leader. He put himself out there so we didn't have to. He took the brunt of the abuse and hatred from the media, and put the crosshairs on himself if it ever would have come down to a cartel hit. His downfall may be pride, he was too proud to realize he needed help, since he was so used to showing a strong hand to our adversaries. I wish I had known he needed more help, or another place to stay, since it appears Lisa and JT were not getting along, though whenever I visited it didn't seem apparent, as far as I knew, she supported his efforts to stop narco-terrorism and the war against Americans. To all the Patriots out there, be strong, but stop and take inventory now and again. The struggle for survival is not going to be won in a single generation, as it has taken decades for us to get where we are, and we cannot afford to lose anymore Patriots.

And there you have it.  I'm going to expand on this more later but I agree with AJ, JT positively needed help.  He'd mentioned to me that he suffered from PTSS from things that happened to him while he was a Marine.  He had a quick temper as well, but always seemed to rapidly get it under control.  Nobody here is making an excuse for him or what happened.  All we can do is help provide a few hints as to what was going on in his head. 

I did know that he was in a complicated living situation.  However, I didn't think it was so much the result of a relationship going sour as it was his desire to be closer to the action.  With fuel prices at record highs, we all were trying to come up with ways to be closer to the border.  We'd talked a lot about campers and for all I knew, he was working on getting one.  He was going to pull it close to where we deployed from and live there most of the time.  It was my idea since I had a camper at a retreat once, which I had lived in comfort on and off.  I had told him that it was a difficult thing to secure but simple to maintain and highly mobile.  We'd talked about solar and wind power next.  If we'd ever completed the project sooner, maybe things would have been different.  IF IF IF.