Soldier survived brutal deployment

Shooter’s troubled soul: Soldier survived brutal deployment
By Matthew D. LaPlante

The Salt Lake Tribune

Sep 3, 2010
A U.S. Army soldier who was killed in a shootout with police in downtown Salt Lake City on Friday afternoon had suffered through a brutal combat tour in Afghanistan, where he survived mortar attacks, sniper ambushes, roadside bomb blasts and a suicide bombing — and in which he took the lives of several enemy fighters, according to soldiers who served with him.

Just days after returning home from the war, Brandon Barrett was cited for driving under the influence of alcohol after police found him asleep and intoxicated behind the wheel of his car at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in western Washington. Fellow soldiers say that Barrett went AWOL on July 19 shortly after being berated for the incident in front of his comrades by a senior soldier.

“We all thought he was going to take a month or two and come back,” said one of Barrett’s fellow soldiers. “I guess that wasn’t his plan.”

The factors leading up to Barrett’s death in Salt Lake City may never be clear, but friends and family members say the Army appears to have quickly washed its hands of Barrett after he left, leaving a clearly troubled soldier to his own devices just weeks after returning home from war.
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Soldier survived brutal deployment