Memorial Day and Alyssa Peterson, 2022
2022; we celebrate our heroes who donned the uniform for our country. Those who gave all. We commemorate and memorialize them, pay tribute to those that gave the ultimate sacrifice. Some died heroically, all did so tragically, some may have died seemingly unnecessarily. I believe that most died for a reason and a purpose, and their lives and most of their deaths have lessons for us, those of us that survive and those that remember, even long into the future, we can take away insights and cues. We have to, need to, we are morally obliged to remember them and carry away lessons and principles from our veterans' tremendous sacrifices. Some of their ideals and actions will save more lives if we remember them. I would like to discuss someone who died in the second Iraq War, not just to remember her individual value, but to share what she stood for, and I believe what she died for.
I think that her life and sacrifice will instruct and teach all of us a few key things.
Her name was Alyssa; I never met her. She joined the U.S. Army as a Human Intelligence Collector. I joined the Army in 2007, as the same MOS (Military Occupational Specialty), about three and half years after her death. The more that I think about it, the more I believe that I chose this path and I have stayed in it because of her, or at least the spirit of what she fought for.
Why and how did she die? I will do my best to explain, from what I understand. Below is a link to find out more of the facts as to what is known and opined online about her, her case, and the war that she took part in.
While she did take her own life, as was ruled, and as I am sure her death actually occurred, I still think that she died for a cause that was bigger than her own life, and hopefully her decision led to saving other lives. As we will discuss, she had other recourses that she could have fallen back on to save herself, but this was not what happened; we may all learn from what we ourselves can do if put in similar circumstances.
One caveat to throw out there about the context of this story: many claim that the Iraq War from 2003 to 2010 was fought under false allegations, bolstered by or tampered by false evidence, that George Bush and the Vice-President Dick Cheney had special axes to grind, including accusations against top U.S. leadership of pure greed and power. After the takeover of the country was accomplished spring of 2003, Saddam was removed, and the Coalition occupation was stood up, further decisions by those in power made were also harshly scrutinized and pilloried, including assessments of extreme ignorance or hubris against the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and others in control, many of which I agree with. All that said, within the greater context of the war, I present my take on the smaller story of Alyssa.
In the first week of autumn of the war, 2003, U.S. and Coalition Forces had subdued the former Iraqi government under the longtime despot and strong man Saddam Hussein. Our troops were still trying to find him in the country the size of California, with a bigger population. Some thought maybe Hussein had fled to nearby Syria. Insurgents were actively targeting and killing U.S. and allied forces, to include fellow Iraqis and doctors and humanitarians trying to help the native people survive.
Alyssa was the rank of a Specialist in the Army, an E-4, which is considered junior enlisted, and is subject as such to orders to dozens of other ranks, to include all sergeants and officers, of which in any Army operation there are many. As an interrogator, trained and conditioned in special training to do her job in tandem with others of higher ranks and experience, she knew how to question and interrogate detainees held by the U.S. Army. She would take orders and use her own ingenuity in order to find out the truth of what prisoners may hold, so that the U.S. Army could know better where the threats remained, those killing, kidnapping, and even torturing U.S. soldiers, Marines, Iraqi allies, and innocent civilians.
There was a lot of pressure in those months following the initial takeover. I have spent a summer in the Middle East, aka "the Sand Box": the heat alone will turn normal people the wrong way. But we (those in power in a foreign land) were being blown up, shot at, and in worst case scenarios captured and sometimes grotesquely killed on camera. Yep, terrorism was very afoot in those times; these interrogations were serious matters. U.S. forces, those including SPC Peterson, were under supreme duress to provide information to continue to pursue the bad guys and stop them.
Alyssa was forced to do harsh interrogations that went too far, that compromised her character and morals, that went beyond the Geneva Conventions that all of us as specially trained soldiers swear to uphold, as well as us before that, all of us, not just HUMINT soldiers, taking an oath to defend and fight and die for the U.S. Constitution. We swear on our lives and on our honor that we will follow lawful orders, that we will dissent and disobey when an order is unlawful. We will not compromise who we are.
Alyssa was ordered to do so. She let it be known. No! She would not follow those inhumane, unlawful orders that amounted to torture. Her commanding officers ordered her to do so, fellow soldiers tried to coax her or coach her to follow the orders, and not only step out of her normal or virtuous role as a decent human being, but they were trying to justify to her that breaking the law and coercing and torturing were acceptable.
I never met Alyssa, but I know that this was not her. She could not reconcile it. Fellow soldiers spoke about how she responded. I have thought about her words and reaction for years. "I cannot be another person."
Alyssa would not accept it, she would not continue to torture others. They, her so- called superior officers, threatened her with a Court Martial if she did not comply. She did not take it well at all. She was traumatized. What all of us should learn from Alyssa is that there are other options than the decision that she finally made. She should have pushed the court martial, and shown that she was right. It did not seemed doable, I surmise, to refuse, but that is how she could have redeemed the situation. She was in a very dark place, a place I pray that none of us will ever have to face.
She took her own life, a victim of awful circumstance and unbelievable pressure. And yet, and I mean this, I actually believe that Alyssa gave her life as a true soul and followed the commands of a higher Commander, one who reigns on High. She was following the Savior by not following those earthly commanders' orders. She was born (reborn, through baptism) in His name, she took His name upon her, how could she betray Him? How could she be anyone else but His? She did not see a way out.
Oh, Alyssa! I am so sorry. We, your brothers and sisters, are so, so sorry. You are a veteran worth celebrating and remembering. I hope to see you in heaven someday. Thank you so much for your service.
Thank you so much for going on a mission to the Netherlands, for testifying of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to the Dutch and others throughout your life, for standing up for Christianity, for your truths. Thank you for learning Arabic, and being a good soldier, and learning to speak with the Iraqis, many of whom are good, and innocent, many of whom are Christian, who trace their heritage back centuries and centuries to the first Christians, who themselves testify of the goodness of Jesus and faith in him. There are millions of Muslims who regard you and their fellow Christians with special regard, with respect and honor for following your conscience, submitting to God. For refusing the gross mistreatment of some of his children.
I never met Alyssa, this E-4 Specialist, Arabic linguist, returned missionary to Holland, this graduate of psychology from Northern Arizona. No, sir, no ma'am. I never met her in this life. She died when I was a new father, with a small daughter, me going to school wanting to be a diplomat and peacemaker for my country, a thing that I consider to be of great worth. I wound up following more in your foot steps, soldier.
I cannot recall when I first learned about Alyssa. I paid attention to all casualties of our troops, and I have battled and striven to make sense of all the injuries and deaths.
No, I never had the pleasure to meet her.
I also, to my knowledge, have never met the Son of God, the one in Arabic known as Yesu al-Mesiah. And yet, after all these years, some 19 years later, a lifetime, since your death, and all these Memorial Days and other national and patriotic and religious and solemn holidays passed, to include sacrament meetings, endowment sessions in the Houses of the Lord, Shabbat services in multiple continents, Friday calls to prayer revering Allah, meditation services with Buddhists, joyful worship services with the Hari Krishnas, I feel like you may just be right around the corner, right down the hall, maybe seated in the seat next to me, or sitting somewhere behind me, or simply standing in the doorway looking in. Maybe you are with my mom, who joined your realm in 2014, eleven years after you.
I know this tribute is now long winded, and may seem incredible, like so many things are, but I am not being histrionic, I am telling you what I feel: I will remember you on Memorial Day, and many other days and years to come. You are not forgotten; you are a veteran who gave it all, and you died for your beliefs. Heroic in life and death. Unknown by most.
And maybe, I think with more of all of us knowing more about life and death in general, and specifically, pain and suffering, joy and terror, mercy and grace, maybe because of you and faith in God, maybe we might all come closer to where we need to be.
Thank you, my sister. It is possible that you died for me, and others. Your actions may have changed a lot of policies, and changed quite a few hearts and minds. Your mercy and humanity might have changed the course of everything; it is hard to know the aftermath and consequences of such things.
People sometimes thank me for my service rendered as a soldier, but those thanks go to souls like you. Thank you for what you served for. We will try to live to repay it.
Never forgotten. Always cherished. Now and forever.
Memorial Day, 2022.
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