I am a couple days late posting this on here, but I would be doing you a disservice by not giving you the chance to read about SGT. Tanner Higgins.
Death dates are mourned, honored, and celebrated in different ways.
For me, I believe a person dies a second time when you stop telling the stories of how they lived. On April 14th, 2012, SGT Tanner Stone Higgins made the ultimate sacrifice for his country while bringing the fight to the enemy in Logar Province, Afghanistan.
Here is how I remember SGT Higgins:
I met Higgins as a new private in Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. Higgins was a “tabbed specialist.” For those who have not spent time in the military, being a private in the 75th Ranger Regiment is not a great lifestyle. Your life is made up being “smoked” and avoiding anybody who has a Ranger Tab for fear of reprisal.
I ran into Higgins shortly after getting to D-co and he was not like the rest of the leadership. In a World of alpha males with loud voices, chest beating, and bravado, Higgins was kind. He didn’t raise his voice for the sake of doing so. He was the kind of person you wanted to follow. Not because you had to, but because you believed in him. He enforced a strict standard because he wanted his subordinates to survive and win when they were hitting a target. He looked like a Spartan and he lead by example. As a new Ranger, he was somebody I aspired to be like.
I believe if the country had more folks that exemplified characteristics like Higgins, we would not be facing an identity crisis in America. We would believe personal freedoms are worth dying for and the differences of opinions between person to person are not something that divide us, but what makes America unique.
How can you honor SGT Tanner Stone Higgins? Toast a drink to him this evening. Say a prayer for his family. And take the time to explain to your children why guys like Higgins believed in America so much he was willing to die for it.
I started this company with the lens of my experiences. Having the opportunity to meet guys like SGT Higgins and watching them die for what they believed in taught me what was important. It’s not politics, business, power, fame, or money. It’s family. It’s morality. It’s the hard right, over the easy wrong.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:13