Page 10 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Spring 2015

Dedication
Dedication

Major Keith “Doc” Butler (US Army) Special Operations Command’s
was killed in the line of duty in Af­ elite Joint Medical Augmentation
ghanistan on 10 May 2014. Major Unit (JMAU). Doc would see ac­
Butler enjoyed a distinguished ca­ tion in El Salvador, Panama, Hon­
reer, spanning 37 years and dozens duras, Haiti, the Balkans, Somalia,
of com bat deployments. His military Iraq, and Afghanistan, serving in
career started with a 4­year stint in Major Keith Allen Butler, PA-C both medical and assault team lead
the US Marine Corps, after which he enlisted in the roles. Major Butler was killed on his 44th career de­
US Army to pursue a career in Special Forces, where ployment and was laid to rest at Arlington National
he would spend much of the rest of his career. A Cemetery with full military honors on 29 December
7th Group team medic (18D, 18B, 18F, 65D), Doc 2014 (Section 60, Grave
would go on to attend the Interservice Physician’s No. 10754). He is preceded
Assistant Program (IPAP) at Fort Sam Houston, leav­ in death by his father,
ing with bachelor's and master’s degrees from the Jack Butler (US Navy) and
University of Oklahoma and University of Nebraska, leaves behind his mother,
respectively. Over a decades­long career, Doc would Margaret; three sons, Kyle
obtain skill identifiers, including Airborne, Ranger, (wife, Kristina), Kasey (wife,
Special Forces, HALO, SCUBA, Master Parachutist, Lindsey), and Kevin; sister,
Jump Master, Combat Dive Super visor, and Dive Melany Cardwell (husband,
Medical Technician, and a specialty fellowship in Greg; nieces Aubany and Kayla); brother, Dwight
emergency medicine. Doc leveraged his advanced (wife, Kathy; nephews, Bowe and Tye), and fiance,
medical training into an eventual role with Joint Carmin Nedley.

escribed by his sister as a “warrior with a poet’s soul,” Doc would often quote from rote
Dmemory the words of the sages of democracy. A few of his favorites that have etched a
new meaning in his legacy are:

“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sun-
shine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but
he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with
us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we
obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every
thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and
it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not
be highly rated. . . .” — Thomas Paine, 23 December 1776
“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and de-
graded state of moral and patriotic feeling, which thinks that nothing is worth
war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to
fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a mis-
erable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by
the exertions of better men than himself.” — John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)

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