Rob Richards, a Marine sniper who served three tours in
Afghanistan, has been laid to rest in Arlington Cemetery
Semper Fi brother.
Rob Richards, a Marine sniper who served three tours in Afghanistan,
has died of an accidental overdose of painkillers. Read the full story, by
Washington Post writer Greg Jaffee, here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/marine-sniper-is-saluted-as-more-than-the-video-scandal-that-defined-him/2015/02/21/e0a8492a-b7ba-11e4-9423-f3d0a1ec335c_story.html?tid=hybrid_default_strip_2
Mr. Jaffee did a good job with a difficult story and for
that I salute him… Thank you.
In part, Jaffee wrote, “His
three combat tours in Afghanistan had been boiled down to a 38-second video
clip, played and replayed on YouTube more than a million times…
[…]
“More than two years
later — long after the rest of the country had moved on to other scandals —
Richards, 28, died at home and alone from an accidental painkiller overdose.
Now an ammunition can
carrying his cremated remains sat on the table of a hotel bar in Arlington,
Va., as his family, friends and fellow Marines swirled around it.
Almost everything
about war is complicated, messy or morally fraught; in this case even more so.
A Marine vilified by his country’s leaders and court-martialed for “bringing
discredit to the armed forces” would soon be buried at Arlington National
Cemetery, the country’s most hallowed ground. On this mid-February night before
the funeral, dozens who knew Richards beyond those 38 seconds gathered to
celebrate his life…”
[…]
As the months passed,
Richards worried that the 38 seconds would follow him for the rest of his life.
The investigation and court-martial took nearly two years before the Marine
Corps offered Richards a plea deal that reduced him a rank to corporal and
allowed him to leave the military with an honorable discharge. Richards felt
abandoned by the Marine brass who had heaped praise on his unit when they were killing
Taliban. He had hoped to get into defense contracting after the military, but
he worried that no one in the industry would ever hire him.
“He felt backed into a
corner,” his wife recalled. “He always said, ‘It’s all I’ll ever be known for.’ ”
After the military,
Richards fell into a depression and became addicted to opiates. Eventually, he
went through drug counseling. He and his wife separated briefly and then
reunited after he had finished treatment.
[…]
A few days before he
died, Richards and his wife had put in an offer on a house near Orlando, where
they both had attended high school. They had already begun to box up their
possessions for the move from their home in Camp Lejeune, N.C.
[…] Read the rest of
the story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/marine-sniper-is-saluted-as-more-than-the-video-scandal-that-defined-him/2015/02/21/e0a8492a-b7ba-11e4-9423-f3d0a1ec335c_story.html?tid=hybrid_default_strip_2
She came home from
work that evening and found his body on the floor outside the kitchen. Later
doctors would speculate that his weakened liver had been unable to metabolize
the prescription painkillers that were slowly building up in his system.
There are many
reactions to seeing death: Raechel’s was disbelief. “Not like this,” she would
remember screaming as she stood near her husband. “Not like this.”
Greg Jaffe covers the
White House for The Washington Post, where he has been since March 2009.
God Bless him for his service to our country.
*****
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