Tyler Edward Parten

West Point, 2007

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by 1LT Michael Soderberg on September 18, 2009:

Tyler, It's taken me a week to even comprehend the loss of my best friend here in Afghanistan. Part of me is enraged at the fact that someone killed my best friend and the other part of me can't describe the wandering pain that comes from losing you. I hate the fact that I can't mourn you as much as I wish I could and that I'm not afforded the opportunity to avenge a fallen friend. I remember coming into the air terminal at Baghram after coming back from leave on the 9th and debating the best way to both ask if you'd be my best man at my wedding and give you a hard time about it, only to find out that I had missed your final flight home only hours before. Memories of our adventures in Colorado Springs; skiing Arapahoe Basin, running around Tejon (using a tooth brush and a breathalyzer as a pick up line will never be the same), and causing trouble in Denver, all seem so fresh and vivid in my memory, but so hollow when I look to the future when this deployment is over and I return to Fort Carson without you. Even the rest of this deployment will not be the same without you. I remember sitting out on the deck of the CP at OP Hatchet and talking about your and Meg's future, what you wanted to do with your career, and where your spiritual trials have taken you. We spent hours talking, mostly me listening attentively and you venting what frustrations and epiphanies you've had on the Fortress of Solitude known as OP Hatchet. Those ten days hold memories, while then ridiculous, now have become precious to me and defining, in what I held as a close friendship. I wish we could have gone on more patrols together, I wish I could have heard more of the saga of your and Meg's relationship, I wish we could sit on the deck overlooking the river on FOB Bostick letting the day go but, I wish we could go skiing one more time, I wish we could go downtown one more time with everyone, I wish I had one more opportunity to tell you what you meant to me as a friend. There's so much more I wish I could write to tell you I'll miss you and all the times we had, but I know they meant as much to you as they did to me. When I went on leave I told you I'd see you again soon and to take care. I will still tell you I'll see you again and to take care as I know you're in a better place. Until we meet again, Mike

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