2019-10-21_Time

64 Time October 21–28, 2019

the details were murky, but it was known that
Brent and another U.S. soldier were shot on
Nov. 3, 2018, by one of the Afghan troops they
were training during a routine hike near Camp
Scorpion in Kabul, where Brent was based.
Other Afghan troops in the unit had quickly
drawn their guns and shot the killer dead. It
was the fifth “insider attack” in four months,
and the motives behind it remain unknown.
Brent was evacuated to nearby Bagram Airfield
and died during the short helicopter ride. The
six-page military autopsy report, observed by
TIME, contains grim details. The attacker shot
Brent in the back of the head above his right
ear; the bullet tore through his brain before ex-
iting the left side of his forehead. The motive
remains unknown.
Later that day, the military issued a typically
bland statement that an unidentified service
member had been killed in Afghanistan, with
the usual disclaimer that additional informa-
tion would become public 24 hours after fam-
ily notification. However, it didn’t take long for
news of Brent’s death to spread through North
Ogden. Jennie hurried home to tell her children
before the news reached them. It would be the
most difficult thing she would ever do.
The kids had gone out for McDonald’s with
Jennie’s stepfather and brother, and they hap-
pened to pull up to the house at the same time

Jennie did. They followed her into the house and

down the carpeted stairway into the ground-

floor living room: Megan, 13; Lincoln, 11; Alex,

9; Jacob, 7; Ellie, 5; Jonathan, 2; and Caroline,

11 months. Sitting around a leather sectional

couch, they learned their father was dead. Seven

sets of eyes looked back at Jennie in disbelief. As

the news sank in, Jennie tried to embrace each of

them to acknowledge each child’s grief. “It was

hard because I’m not an octopus,” she says. “I

don’t have seven arms to hug them all.”

Three days after Brent was killed, his re-

mains arrived on a hulking C-17 jet at Dover Air

Force Base in the predawn mist at 4 a.m. Jen-

nie and two of her kids looked on as six sol-

diers with white gloves carried the flag-draped

transfer case off the back of the plane. Jennie

later put on a brave face and stood before cam-

eras to give a short statement. “To call it a so-

bering event would be an unspeakable under-

statement,” she said, looking on blankly in a

navy blue pea coat.

“To say that our hearts

are anything but shat-

tered would be noth-

ing short of true de-

ceit. And yet, to deny

the sacred honor that

it is to stand that close

to some of the freshest

One of the most

difficult parts was how

to deal with the

things he left behind

^

Jennie tries to get

the kids to bed at the

family’s ranch home,

which Brent dreamed

of turning into a farm