A paratrooper who was killed in Afghanistan this week wrote before his death that he would consider it “glory” to die for his country.
Pfc. Brandon Jay Kreischer, 20, wrote two years ago, “If I die in the combat zone for America, I do not call it a tragedy. I call it glory.”
Kreischer, who deployed less than a month ago, was ambushed, shot, and killed Monday on a military base by an Afghan soldier in the Shah Wali Kot district. The attacker was taken into police custody after the incident.
Gov. Mike DeWine ordered flags in Williams County and the Ohio Statehouse lowered half-staff to honor the Ohio native’s sacrifice.
Killed alongside Kreischer was 24-year-old fellow paratrooper Spc. Michael Nance.
“These young men were true all Americans and embodied the qualities of selfless service and courage as they answered our nation’s call to deploy to Afghanistan,” said Col. Arthur Sellers, the commander of the brigade in which both men served.
The insider attack was the first of its kind in Afghanistan since November.
