A Warrior’s Journey

The United States Special Operations Command sends special operations teams to various hotspots on the globe and on any given day, somewhere in the world they are performing a service for their country. One of the unfortunate aspects of being a Special Operations warrior is you are involved in highly secret missions and in doing so, if killed while performing a service for your country your loved ones may never know how you died.

Medals, citations, awards are not part of a Special Operations warrior’s life, they could care less about accolades, all they care about is doing the job they are assigned to the best of their abilities and they do it well, after all, they are our best, that is enough for them.

Master Sergeant Tony Yost, a 39-year-old sniper was one of these warriors. His wife, Joann recently buried Sgt. Yost at Arlington national cemetery. She had been discouraged from viewing his remains due to the severe damage he had sustained while serving his country.

Joann received the news that all military wives secretly know will come on any given day that her husband had been killed while serving his country. The military had told her that a building had exploded with her husband inside. Joann accepted this, buried her husband and got on with her life.

It was only recently that Joann learned the circumstances surrounding her husband’s death while reading the Sunday Times she saw an article detailing a Special Operations secret mission that was hunting Zarqawi. The article stated that Master Sergeant Tony Yost had been leading a special forces “A-team” raid on a Zarqawi safe house in Mosul, northern Iraq, when he was killed last November.

The newspaper went on to say that, Yost had killed three of the terrorist’s lieutenants in a firefight before Zarqawi blew up the house and escaped through a tunnel.

Sources in the story explain that Yost had become a legend within the Special Forces community and his wife wants the full story of how her husband met his fate.

These are sad times we are all living in with death a part of our daily lives, rest in peace Sgt. Yost and I pray your wife finds peace in her life.