Insightful Biography Of Captain Humayan Khan: Fellow Troops Didn't Know He Was Islamic

Captain Humayan Khan's commander in Iraq:"The Khan Family is Our Family". Khan's troops didn't know he was Muslim.

Captain Khan’s commander in Iraq speaks out:

HIGHLIGHTS:

General Pittard:

• “The Khan family is our family”
• Khan was an “American Patriot”
• “Trump does not understand how deeply the military feels about its gold star families and how much all military families have given over these past 15 years of war.”

Army Pfc. Vanessa Brenes-Ramirez

• “He was American. That’s what he was. All the colors we saw were green.”
• “I felt like he was my protector”
• All I can tell you is I’ve never seen so many people cry,” she would say. “Grown people. I mean hitting the floor crying.”
• “He told everybody, ‘Get down!’” she would say. “He sacrificed himself.”
• ”He was our hero”.

Sgt. Laci Walker

• “All the soldiers loved him,” she would later say. “He was just so good, and everybody looked up to him.”

• “I liked to be on guard duty when he was in charge,”  “I knew it would be safer. I knew he would be the one looking out for me.”​
• ​​​Walker would add, “I didn’t even know he was a Muslim.”
• “He would not want to be remembered as ‘that Muslim solider.’ He would want to be known as the soldier who died for his country.”

Captain Khan’s Commander in Iraq: ‘The Khan Family Is Our Family’

THE FALLEN CAPTAIN’S TROOPS SAY THEY DID NOT KNOW HUMAYUN KHAN WAS MUSLIM, ONLY THAT HE WAS A PATRIOT AND A PROTECTOR. AND HIS COMMANDER HAS A MESSAGE FOR TRUMP.

When she took her three sons to her fallen captain’s grave, former Army Pfc. Vanessa Brenes-Ramirez did not even think to speak to them about his religion.

She did tell her boys how Capt. Humayun Khan had been the very soul of kindness and decency. How he had made her feel safe. How he had always said leaders lead from the front. How he understood that you have to know what it means to be at the bottom before you can rightly be at the top.

Her first encounter with that philosophy in action had been when her unit, the 201st Forward Support Battalion, was preparing to deploy to Iraq back in 2004. A sergeant had ordered her to dig a foxhole after she had been on guard duty all night. She was already exhausted, but she had set to digging when Khan happened past.

“What are you doing?” Khan asked by her recollection “You just did guard duty. Go sit down.”

“Sir?” a stunned Brenes-Ramirez asked.

“Go sit down,” Khan said. “That’s an order.”

The 19-year-old private found herself sitting and watching an officer work the shovel. The sergeant returned.

“What are you doing, sir?” the sergeant asked Khan.

“I’m helping,” Khan replied.  

Captain Khan was a kind man.  No wonder his parents, Khizr and Ghazala Khan, are so immensely proud of him.

 Army Captain Humayun Khan, Vanessa Brenes-Ramirez, and fellow troops in Iraq.

She did not consider Khan’s religion.

“I didn’t even know he was a Muslim,” she would recall. “He was American. That’s what he was. All the colors we saw were green.”

Just Americans.  Not Muslims, Hispanics, Asian, just AMERICANS.

Then came the morning of June 8, 2004. Khan had worked the overnight detail but wanted to see some security improvements a sergeant had been making to the front gate.

By one estimate, eight other Americans were in the vicinity of the gate when an orange taxi approached. Khan’s first concern was that none of his soldiers get hurt, and he called for everybody to get down.

But Khan was also likely concerned about the two Iraqis who were in the front seat. He was no doubt mindful of earlier incidents in which an approaching vehicle had failed to stop when ordered and the guards had opened fire with unfortunate results.

He approached the taxi and held up his hand for it to stop. The Iraqis responded by detonating a 200-pound bomb.

“Chaos,” Brenes-Ramirez would recall.

One of those who came running was Sgt. Laci Walker, then 21. She had never heard Khan speak ill of anybody and knew him always to look for the best in people.

“All the soldiers loved him,” she would later say. “He was just so good, and everybody looked up to him.”

Walker could have stayed back in Germany when the unit deployed, but she insisted that Khan take her with him.

“I liked to be on guard duty when he was in charge,” Walker would recall. “I knew it would be safer. I knew he would be the one looking out for me.”

Walker would add, “I didn’t even know he was a Muslim.”

Fellow Americans forging life long bonds.

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She was off duty when she heard the explosion, and she got on a handheld radio. She learned that a vehicle-borne device had exploded at the gate. She was initially told there had been no American casualties, but when she arrived a fellow sergeant told her there had been one.

“He asked, ‘How are you with body parts?’” Walker would recall. “I said, ‘No problem. Who is it?’ And he told me and I puked my brains out.”

Brenes-Ramirez would say that she only remembered the tears.

“All I can tell you is I’ve never seen so many people cry,” she would say. “Grown people. I mean hitting the floor crying.”

Khan had been a protector to the end.

“He told everybody, ‘Get down!’” she would say. “He sacrificed himself.”

She would also say, “He was our hero.”

A true American hero.   

The boots, helmet, and rifle of Army Captain Humayun Khan on display at his memorial in 2004

Among those who watched the remarkable seven minutes on television was retired Gen. Dana Pittard, who had been the brigade commander at Warhorse when Khan was killed. Pittard had been aware that Khan was Muslim, as was another captain in the unit and as were several other soldiers. Khan had proven helpful in relations with the Iraqis. But he had made his loyalties clear.

“He said, ‘I’m an American. I’m an American patriot.” Pittard would recall.

Pittard had been stunned by the sudden void when that car bomb robbed the world of the captain it had been so lucky to have.

“There was so much promise for the future,” Pittard said. “He was such a good person. It was so wasteful that he died.”

That’s what we need to always remember, Captain Khan was an American Patriot, an American hero.  Yes, he was Muslim, but it did not matter to his troops, they never knew nor cared, they loved him and cherished him.  He was a credit and source of pride for his parents, and for American-Muslims in this country.  

Last week, Pittard was stunned to see Khan’s face appear on the TV screen as he watched the Democratic convention with his family. Pittard then saw Khan’s father and mother at the podium. Pittard remembered that after he had sent them a letter of condolence, he had received a letter from them.

“Mr. and Mrs. Khan wrote me back thanking me,” Pittard told The Daily Beast.

Pittard’s family has voted Republican since Herbert Hoover, and he has never been the kind of general to comment on political matters, but he felt he had to say something about Trump’s subsequent attack on Khan’s parents. He figures that at the very least Trump does not understand how deeply the military feels about its gold star families and how much all military families have given over these past 15 years of war.

“The Khan family is our family,” Pittard said.

Sgt. Laci Walker:

“He would not want to be remembered as ‘that Muslim solider.’ He would want to be known as the soldier who died for his country.”