Don’t overlook Tacoma area military families left ‘raw and sad’ by Afghanistan exit
This week’s sudden reckoning over two decades mired in Afghanistan and more than $2 trillion spent on America’s longest war would be grossly incomplete without taking time to remember, honor and listen to the Americans most impacted by it.
The thousands of service members who served, bled and died there — and the families they left behind, too often permanently.
Our country owes a huge ongoing debt to survivors like Lisa Hallett of DuPont. Her husband, Capt. John Hallett, was one of 22 soldiers in a single JBLM Stryker battalion who died during a brutal 2009-10 combat tour. All told, more than 300 men and women assigned to the base south of Tacoma lost their lives in Afghanistan.
Now as the Afghan government crumbles and the US evacuates from Kabul under whirlwind Taliban advances, Hallett says she feels more hollowed out than at any time since her husband was killed in action 12 years ago this month.
“John’s death has never felt as present as it has this week,” she told us.
In Pierce County, you don’t have to look hard to find heroes like the Hallets. Few US military bases have deployed more troops to conduct dangerous counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan and Iraq than JBLM has.
In fact, the grim drumbeat of US casualties started here. Sgt.1st Class Nathan Chapman, a Green Beret who trained at JBLM, was fatally shot in eastern Afghanistan on Jan. 4, 2002 — the first of nearly 2,500 US military personnel who would die over there.
Thousands more were wounded, including Master Sgt. Leroy Petry, a JBLM Ranger who lost his right hand throwing a live grenade away from his wounded teammates in 2008. Petry is one of only two living service members to be awarded the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War.
We mustn’t underestimate the contributions of all who answered the 9/11 call to carry out a mission — both military and humanitarian — despite world history showing it might’ve been doomed from the outset.
Nor can we overlook the survivors who may feel re-traumatized by the dramatic exit.
Last weekend, Hallett was overwhelmed by fast-moving information about the collapse of the country where her husband was killed by an explosion under his Stryker vehicle. Three of his comrades also died in the Aug. 25, 2009 blast.
She turned to Facebook to help process her emotions. “Afghanistan is complicated with, what feels like, no obvious answers, but I know that my heart is heavy. I am raw and sad,” she wrote, in part.
Speaking to us this week, she elaborated on her mixed feelings while proudly reflecting on her husband, emphasizing that he didn’t die in vain. “John died on a goodwill mission. He died after delivering medicine to a village with a cholera outbreak. He had the heart of a humanitarian.
“It’s heart wrenching,” she said of Taliban forces retaking the country, “but it’s also complicated.”
There’s that word again — complicated. Indeed, the Biden administration faces tough questions from critics who believe it rushed the withdrawal and betrayed the Afghan people, particularly language translators and others who served alongside US forces.
But Biden, unlike his predecessor who initiated the pullout, has the broad perspective of a former vice president and Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman. Perhaps most important, he’s seen first-hand the devastation of America’s long entanglement in Afghanistan. In 2009, as VP, he spoke at a JBLM memorial service for seven other members of John Hallett’s battalion who were killed together by a buried bomb.
For her part, Lisa Hallett doesn’t dwell on negative politics. The 40-year-old mother of three is a force for positive action, turning her grief into a support group she helped found, called Wear Blue: Run to Remember. What started as a meetup of war widows in a Burger King parking lot has morphed into an organization with chapters as far as Alaska, Hawaii and Germany. Every Saturday, community members gather at PowderWorks Park in DuPont, speak the names of the fallen, and run or walk together.
Hallett will test her limits on Mount Rainier next week, when she plans to run the nearly 100-mile Wonderland Trail loop. It’s her way of marking the anniversary of John’s death while getting away from the political noise of Afghanistan.
“Now is not the time to point fingers,” she told us, “but to stand for our military, support our military, and figure out how we can provide the most effective humanitarian relief for the people there.”
Clearly those who gave so much to liberate Afghanistan and protect America have much to teach us. The least we can do is listen to them.
News Tribune editorials reflect the views of our Editorial Board and are written by opinion editor Matt Misterek. Other board members are: Stephanie Pedersen, News Tribune president and editor; Matt Driscoll, local columnist; and Jim Walton, community representative. The Editorial Board operates independently from the newsroom and does not influence the work of news reporting and editing staffs. For questions about the board or our editorials, email matt.misterek@thenewstribune.com
This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 8:30 AM.