"One of the Piranhas in Sophia's battle group had hit an IED first thing in the morning, blowing off a wheel, but no one was injured. At the outskirts of a village, they were fired on by the Taliban. They returned fire, and the situation calmed. The patrol continued. But seven minutes after noon, an IED went off under Sophia's vehicle, flipping it. She was killed instantly, at the age of 22."
"In the years after Sophia's death, her mother, Lene Bruun, returned repeatedly to details of her service, studying letters from the Danish army that she stored in a metal trunk in her home west of Copenhagen. Over time, she allowed herself distance from her grief. "You can put it away for a short time, sometimes longer, but then it comes back," Bruun, who is 72, told me over coffee at her kitchen table. "And you don't know what triggers it.""
"But, these days, Sophia's mother knows exactly what triggers her grief: "when Trump says we're not good enough." Bruun is a tiny woman, with soft white hair and fine lines grooved into her pale skin. But she became flushed when discussing the American president, who has been threatening to seize Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. "Keep your fingers away," she said with a swatting motion, as if to thwart Trump's land grab."
It was sunny and 104 degrees on June 1, 2010, in southern Afghanistan. Sophia Bruun served as the gunner on a Piranha combat vehicle guarding two platoons near Gereshk while they sought information from locals about the Taliban. One Piranha earlier hit an IED with no injuries. Seven minutes after noon an IED detonated under Sophia’s vehicle, flipping it and killing her instantly at 22. Her mother, Lene Bruun, repeatedly reviewed letters and service details and learned to distance herself from grief, though memories recur unpredictably. Bruun says her grief is triggered by U.S. President Trump’s threats toward Greenland. Danish leaders warn that a U.S. attack on a NATO member would undermine collective defense.
Read at The Atlantic
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