Senior Chief Tim Johns, USN.
For those of you who weren't fortunate enough to meet him in life, this is Senior Chief Tim Johns, USN. He was a Navy EOD Tech, and he deployed to combat over and over again so you didn't have to. He went to Iraq and Afghanistan multiple times and did a job most people would never think of taking on. He did it gladly, and he was one of the best there was.
But now he's dead. Al Qaeda didn't do it, and neither did the Taliban -- although both groups tried pretty damn hard to do so. It was a car wreck near China Lake, CA 4/27/2013 that got him. And he'll never go on the EOD Memorial because he didn't die "doing the job."
That won't stop lots of glasses being raised in his honor in a lot of Florida bars the next few days.
You should raise one too, and say thanks.
He was a warrior. And a friend.
Coming soon: tribute paid on NYT At War.