Insider outrage: Sgt. Joshua Born, 25
'His death is hard to accept... whether he was killed by an ally or not'
Sgt. Joshua Born, 25
385th Military Police Battalion, Ft. Stewart, Ga.
Killed Feb. 23, 2012
The soldiers who came to the door in Florida told Beth Croft that her son was killed in a green-on-blue attack, but the only word that held any significance to her was “dead.”
It didn’t matter that an Afghan soldier had shot him while they monitored a local protest. Her only child, Sgt. Joshua Born, was gone forever.
“His death is hard to accept in any case, whether he was killed by an ally or not,” Croft said. “He was 25 years old, my only child. I mourn him every day.”
Born had just recently gotten married to Megan Myrick.
He was seven weeks into his first deployment when a few Qurans that had been confiscated from prisoners were thrown into the incineration pit at Bagram Air Field. The incident sparked widespread violent protests against the United States, and as a military police officer, Born was sent to help keep the peace in Nangahar province. He and another MP were killed by an Afghan National Army soldier who turned his weapon on them.
The Army gave Croft the report about the final investigation into the shooting, but she hasn’t read it.
She is too busy grieving. Her son was killed Feb. 23, and not until seven months later did she pull herself out of the house on a Saturday night.
Croft has complicated feelings about the war and her son’s purpose there, but ultimately she knows he died for his country, doing what he loved to do. She’s proud of him for that.
“Any death is senseless no matter,” she said. “Especially when it’s your child.”
