The US Army veteran had served as a military police officer in the 137th Military Police Unit and had no combat experience. Nevertheless, he told the media that he was not afraid to fight Putin’s forces and that it was the world’s job to stop the Kremlin’s “mindset”. He fought in Ukraine for ten months before returning to California last December. But he did not stay at home and went to war again after a few months.
“I wanted to stay there until victory,” he told local US media. He returned only because “my son needed me. If it wasn’t about my son, I wouldn’t have come back. After a while he went back to Ukraine. He wanted to continue fighting. Now his family has confirmed his death. He is said to have lost his life along with 19 other mercenaries. Nothing is known about the circumstances.
The British are also mourning: Jordan Chadwick (31), from Burnley, Lancashire, served as a Scottish Guardsman in the British Army from 2011 to 2015. He had joined Zelensky’s forces months earlier. Now he is found dead in a river with his hands tied behind his back. His mother, Brenda Chadwick, told the BBC that her family was “devastated” by the death of her son, who was known as Joe and had wanted to be a soldier from a young age.
“A passion for supporting independence and helping others with his skills has led him to leave the UK and travel to Ukraine in early October 2022,” he added.
