Tomas Young

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Tomas Young (born November 30, 1979 in Kansas City , Missouri , † November 10, 2014 in Seattle , Washington ) was an American veteran of the Iraq War and a paraplegic war veteran .

Life

Young was inspired by a speech given by President George W. Bush two days after 9/11 to volunteer for the US Army. He wanted to earn some money for his studies and give something back to those who were responsible for the attack. On his sixth day in Iraq , during the occupation of Iraq , on April 4, 2004, he was seriously wounded in an unarmored vehicle in a rebel attack in Sadr City . The bullet fired by a sniper injured his spine. Young was paralyzed from chest level.

Young returned to Kansas City and became a member of the Iraq Veterans Against the War . In 2005, he married his high school girlfriend Brie Townsend. They divorced eight months later. He was interviewed for the documentary Body of War (2007). Since then, his health has deteriorated. While at a rehab center in Chicago, he met Claudia Cuellar, who had volunteered to visit veterans in the hospital to cheer them up. Although his health had deteriorated, they got married on April 20, 2012. Young was tube fed and given pain medication. He lived in a dying hospice.

In March 2013, journalist Chris Hedges von Truthdig interviewed Young about his views and circumstances. On the tenth anniversary of the Third Gulf War , Truthdig published an open letter from Young to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney , in which he announced his suicide by starvation from April 20, 2013, and accused Bush and Cheney of war crimes . He took this path to end his life, but again, among other things, in order not to leave his wife Claudia Cuellar alone.

Tomas Young died on the eve of Veterans Day at the age of 34 from circumstances that were initially unexplained; Young had fought for a good ten years against a government that sent young people into what he considered to be a "deeply unjust war" and advocated better veterans' care.

His story was part of the plot in the 2017 National Geographic miniseries The Long Road Home , in which he was portrayed by Noel Fisher .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christine Mai-Duc: Tomas Young, Iraq was veteran and antiwar activist, this at 34. In: Los Angeles Times of November 11, 2014 (English, accessed November 13, 2014).
  2. ↑ Anthony Sharwood: An Iraq veteran's last letter: Dying US soldier calls Bush a murderer. In: The Courier-Mail , March 21, 2013 (English).
  3. ↑ Beth Stebner: The Iraq veteran who can no longer go on: Husband, 33, who was paralyzed by sniper bullet four days into deployment plans to starve himself to death almost a decade on . In: Daily Mail , March 21, 2013, accessed December 2, 2018.
  4. ^ Amy Goodman: Legacy of an Iraq War veteran: Tomas Young's anti-war message and decision to end his life. In: Rabble.ca , March 21, 2013 (English).
  5. ^ Douglas Martin: Tomas Young, Army Veteran, Dies at 34; Critic of Iraq War in film . In: The New York Times , November 16, 2014, accessed December 2, 2018.
  6. ^ Matt Campbell: Tomas Young, wounded Iraq War vet, is ready to die on his own terms. In: The Kansas City Star , March 20, 2013 (English).
  7. ↑ Sebastian Fischer: Tenth Anniversary of the Invasion: Dying Iraq Veteran Accuses Bush. In: Der Spiegel , March 23, 2013.
  8. ^ Tomas Young: Last Letter. ( Text , video )
  9. ↑ Nick Wing: Tomas Young, Dying Iraq Veteran, Chooses To Live: I'll 'Hold On As Long As I Can' . In: Huffington Post , May 30, 2013, accessed December 2, 2018.
  10. ^ Maria L. La Ganga: Tomas Young dies at 34; soldier became antiwar activist after paralyzing injury. In: Los Angeles Times , November 11, 2014, accessed November 12, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Young, Tomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American veteran of the Iraq war
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1979
PLACE OF BIRTH Kansas City , Missouri
DATE OF DEATH November 10, 2014
Place of death Seattle , Washington