Gold Star father Jim Moriarty has been nominated to become an honorary Green Beret this November. A lawyer by trade, Mr. Moriarty will join the ranks of the Green Berets for his hard tireless work on behalf of the Special Forces Regiment.
Mr. Moriarty’s son, Staff Sgt. Jimmy Moriarty was tragically killed when ambushed by a Jordanian security guard in 2016. His son was a Green Beret assigned to an interagency training program in Jordan designed to train proxy forces to fight in the Syrian civil war.
On November 4, 2016, Jimmy Moriarty and his teammates were driving onto the training compound they often visited when a gate guard opened fire on them. Jimmy was killed along with Staff Sgt. Kevin McEnroe and Staff Sgt. Matthew Lewellen.
Initially, the Jordanian government released a series of inaccurate narratives about what had happened at the gate that day, claiming that the Green Berets attempted to ram their way through the gate and that one of the Green Berets accidentally discharged their weapon leading to confusion.
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Mr. Moriarty believed that the truth needed to come out, and exonerate his son and his teammates. Fighting tooth and nail, surveillance footage of the shooting was eventually released by the Jordanian government showing what Mr. Moriarty had always suspected: a cold-blooded murder.
The exact motives of the shooter, Ma’arik al-Tawayha who survived despite being injured when the Green Berets fired on him in self-defense, has never been adequately explained.
Mr. Moriarty’s induction ceremony as an honorary Green Beret will be held on November 4th, the fifth anniversary of the deadly ambush in Jordan which killed his son.
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