Kyle Milliken was 38 years old when he died in Somalia on May 5. Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Milliken was a Navy Seal. His special warfare unit was shepherding a unit of Somali forces in helicopters to where the Somalis would carry out a raid on al-Shabab militants.
Al-Shabab is an al Qaeda-linked jihadist group that controls part of Somalia and has carried out bloody attacks in Kenya, including a 2015 massacre of Christian students. As Milliken’s unit hung back from the raid, they were attacked by the militants. Milliken was killed before the American unit defeated the militants.
Milliken was helping Somalis fight to take back their country and to weaken these murderous terrorists. And he gave his life for it. He had enlisted a few months after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and he won a bronze star along with other medals.
It’s easy these days to forget that every day American soldiers, sailors and airmen are risking their lives in combat. President Barack Obama declared the war in Iraq over. The war in Afghanistan is supposedly over as well.
Of course, neither war is actually over, and Americans are fighting and dying in both of them. Army Rangers Joshua Rogers, 22, and Cameron Thomas, 23, were killed by small-arms fire April 27 while battling Islamic State loyalists in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.
Weston Lee, a 25-year-old 1st lieutenant from Bluffton, Georgia, died April 29 during the ongoing effort to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State.
And U.S. troops are fighting in countries most Americans have never heard of. Ryan Owens, a 36-year-old Navy SEAL from Peoria died during a raid on a suspected al Qaeda hideout in Yemen on Jan. 29.
In every mission these men conduct, the aim is zero casualties. Every war death leaves a heartbroken wife, child, or parent at home. But a battlefield death should not be considered a failure. These lives are not wasted.
Men and women who die in military service give their lives for something greater than themselves. Their sacrifice should inspire us to be better, ourselves. Gen George Patton put it well: “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God such men lived.”
And today America can thank God that many such men and women still live and serve.
