Afghan Army pilot tells widow that slain US Army Officer 'taught me to be a better man'
By: Diana Stancy Correll - November 05, 2018 05:41 PM
RE:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...e-a-better-man
An Afghan National Army pilot praised Maj. Brent Taylor, 39, a member of the Utah Army National Guard who was killed over the weekend in Afghanistan, in a letter he wrote to Taylor’s wife Jennie.
Abdul Rahman Rahmani, who is stationed in Kabul as a major and pilot with the Special Mission Wing and served alongside Brent Taylor, claimed he “taught me to love my wife Hamida as an equal and to treat my children as treasured gifts, to be a better father, to be a better Husban (sic), and to be a better man.”
“I gained a great deal of knowledge from him and I am a better person for having met him,” Rahmani wrote in the letter, which he also shared on Twitter.
“Jennie, please pass my words to your seven children, whom I consider as brothers and sisters to my own five children ...Tell them that their father was a loving, caring, and compassionate man whose life was not just meaningful, it was inspirational,” Rahmani wrote.
Brent Taylor, who was serving in Afghanistan as part of a yearlong leave of absence as mayor of North Ogden in Utah, was killed Saturday in Kabul by an Afghan serving in the country's defense forces, in an apparent insider attack. The tour was his fourth deployment overseas.
According to the NATO-led Resolute Support coalition, Brent Taylor’s attacker was subsequently shot by other Afghan forces.
“I want you all to know that most Afghans feel extreme sorrow and pain over the loss of your husband and father,” Rahmani said. “When you think of our country, and his sacrifice, I can’t imagine your sorrow or sense of loss, but please don’t think that the violent act that took his life is representative of us or our sentiments towards Americans. On behalf of my family and Brent’s friends here in the Special Mission Wing, we pledge to continue to work hard until the end, the day when peace will return to our country and violence and hatred no longer claim the lives of both of our countrymen.”
There are fewer than 14,000 American troops stationed in Afghanistan this year, and they are primarily responsible for advising Afghan forces. Operation Resolute Support Mission was first launched in 2015 after the NATO combat mission formally ended the year before.