“That was his nature: I’ll handle it for you, I’ll take care of it. He was a leader. He wasn’t a follower.”
An Army Special Forces team from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne) was hit this week while clearing a reportedly booby-trapped structure in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. Initial reports, to include from the Governor of Utah, stated that the entire 12 man team had been casualties, to include the fatal wounding of SSG Aaron Butler. Later, one of the mothers of the wounded Green Berets stated that there had been a total of seven operators wounded by the blast; it is unclear if that includes SSG Butler.
The ODA was based out of Camp Williams, Utah and was deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. Nine of the ODA’s members were from Utah, the others calling surrounding states their homes. According to Tris Murray, the mother of Wren Murray, her son was one of the Special Forces soldiers wounded in the explosion. According to Mrs. Murray, the team was clearing a mosque after receiving intel that ISIS-K fighters were inside. During the clearing operation, there was an explosive detonation. According to Murray’s father Scott, “The report that we got is Wren was trying to help people and shooting back at the same time.” Wren received a head injury and shrapnel wounds to the neck and arms
Wren’s teammate, SSG Aaron Rhett Butler of Monticello, Utah was killed in the blast. The 27 year old’s death brings the total number of Americans killed in action in Afghanistan this year to ten. In 2016, a total of nine American service members were killed in Afghanistan. Seven of 2017’s fatalities occurred during combat operations against ISIS-K in the eastern part of Afghanistan.
SSG Butler is the fifth resident of San Juan County, Utah to be killed in action since September 11th, 2001; two of the fallen were also Special Operations veterans: Navel SEAL Jason Workman was killed in action on August 5th, 2011 in Afghanistan and Green Beret Nathan Winder was KIA in Iraq in 2007.
According to Mrs. Murray, the team was clearing a mosque after receiving intel that ISIS-K fighters were inside.
A recent graduate of the United States Army Qualification Course, this was Butler’s first combat deployment but not his first time overseas; Butler served as a missionary for the Mormon church in Ghana from 2009 to 2011, before joining the military. Butler’s role on his team was as an 18C, a Special Forces Engineer Sergeant. In his role as a Charlie, he would have been taking the lead on dealing with any possible booby-traps or explosive devices.
His high school wrestling coach stated that Butler “wasn’t a sit-in-the-back-row kind of guy. That’s probably why he got killed, because he was the first one through the door. That was his nature: I’ll handle it for you, I’ll take care of it. He was a leader. He wasn’t a follower.”
Aaron Butler would have turned 28 this coming Thursday. Instead his family is left to grieve and remember a man they call “a strength to us, and inspiration to those around him, and a joy to have in our family.” His father Randy said that his son was a champion high school wrestler who had always dreamed of a career in the military.
He leaves behind both of his parents, eight siblings, and his fiancée. His father has said that his son was “absolutely fearless, selfless, courageous, and relentless.” His funeral is tentatively planned for Saturday, August 26th.
