Page 144 - JSOM Summer 2019

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My Best Friend and I Did Everything Together — Until He Was Killed in Afghanistan

he May 24, 2019, issue of “At War” in the New York “Everyone in that ambush lost a part of themselves in the fight
Times Magazine presents the story of friendship and that stole our friends. My fellow team leader Tom Block was
Tloss in Afghanistan. The author, Luke Ryan, is one of seriously wounded on that same mission. He required skin
the copy editors for the JSOM. He is a former team leader grafts on his face, along with some reconstructive surgery. It
from 3rd Ranger Battalion, having served four deployments felt to me as though I followed a similar path to recovery: I
to Afghanistan. grasped onto my memories of Patrick, and I grafted them over
the hole that had been torn into my soul.”
“As explosions echoed through the Afghan mountains, I knew
that each blast that tore through the night was also tearing The complete story is available at
through the flesh of my friends. It was October 2013; we had https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/24/magazine/memorial
been caught in an ambush, and though the Taliban in the area -day-afghanistan-ambush.html
had been killed quickly, the explosives they left behind for us
were still detonating.”
Ryan recounts the loss of Patrick Hawkins, Cody Patterson,
Jennifer Moreno, and Joseph Peters. Hawkins was his best
friend.

Patrick Hawkins (left) and Luke Ryan on their third deployment in January 2013.

142 | JSOM Volume 19, Edition 2 / Summer 2019