U.S. Army 1st Lt. Tyler Brown
I have some reservations about making this post as it’s not the kind of thing I’m used to writing, but I thought it was important to note the death of U.S. Army 1st Lt. Tyler Brown. Tyler was killed in action one week ago, 70 miles west of Baghdad, at age 26. (Georgia Tech press release, AJC article)
I met Tyler in 1999 when he ran for SGA President. Each year we conducted a debate (of sorts) between the Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates on Tech Talk, the weekly talk program I produced at WREK Radio. I remember Tyler very clearly - he was the kind of person who made an impression. He was tall and direct, very professional (which stood out, particularly in school), and also very friendly. He made you feel like you or your organization was important to him. WREK wasn’t very prominent on the student radar at the time, but Tyler visited Tech Talk several times, more often than not wearing his ROTC uniform.
Tyler is the first person I’ve personally known who has died while serving in our military. This is the kind of news that makes you sit up a little and re-realize that yes, this is happening, that Iraq is still a very dangerous place, and that there is still much to be done.
A Memorial Walk will be held tonight at 7pm on the Tech campus.
Update: Please see http://www.tylerbrown.def6.com/ for more about Tyler.
September 21st, 2004 at 7:18 pm
Wow. Althought I did not know him personally, I had heard about Tyler during my days at Tech..