There are usually two events that bring a town together more than any other. One is a celebration for a championship team, the other, sadly, is a funeral for a home town soldier.
Winchester MA is no different than any other small town in America. People know each other, graduates come home for Thanksgiving and some go off to war. Glenn Doherty graduated from Winchester HS in 1988 where he wrestled in the winter and played for the varsity tennis team in the spring. After college and a few odd jobs he joined the Navy SEALS in 1995 and was a member of that elite fraternity for eight years. Glenn served two different tours in Iraq and spent many days and months securing fellow Americans in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. He risked his life protecting those who were incapable of fighting and protecting themselves.
Glenn was a sniper and a paramedic and to those who knew him growing up in Winchester, he applied all the lessons he learned on the wresting mat and the tennis court to his service for our country. Glenn retired from the SEALS after eight years. He was working for the State Department in Libya conducting daily searches for "surface to air missiles" that could take down an airliner. When he found them he would "smash them with his rifle" or "crush them" with his jeep.
Glenn died during the attack on the embassy protecting Ambassador Chris Stevens, who perished along with Doherty, ironically, on September 11. His funeral procession on September 19th took him by Winchester HS, his boyhood home on Glenn Road, his elementary school and eventually to his church on the hill. For a few hours the town of Winchester stood still for a 42 year old native son who never stood still in his fight to rid the world of evil.
It is because of heroes like Glenn Doherty that we live in peace and security every day, free to study, shop, travel and play sports. Glenn Doherty was inspired to serve his country after 9/11 and it was on 9/11 of this year that anti-American zealots took his life.
Glenn Doherty was a hero and a hero's legacy never dies.
