THE WIFE OF Navy SEAL, Chris Kyle, whose life was made into a film ‘American Sniper’ starring Bradley Cooper, says she can’t hold on to bitterness for the man who killed her husband.
Kyle was known as the most lethal sniper in US military history with over 160 confirmed kills. He served four tours in the Iraq War.
In 2013, Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield were shot and killed at a shooting range in Texas.
Guilty of murder
Earlier this year, Eddie Ray Routh, was found guilty of both murders.
Speaking on the RTÉ Radio One’s, the Ray D’Arcy Show, she said her story was like a lot of other “warriors and their families”.
She described how she met Kyle in a bar in San Diego and quickly fell in love. Just after a year of meeting him, he was sent to Iraq for his first tour and where he would spend the best part of a decade.
Taya said there is a high divorce rate amoungst veterans and their spouses, explaining that no one can come back from war unchanged.
“Veterans see a lot of trauma and evil – it has to change you.”
Serving his country
She said her husband felt that he was serving his country, and that he never regretted one shot he took, as she said he knew he did it only to protect the people he was meant to protect – the men and women of the armed forces as well as Iraqi civilians, she said.
“He didn’t struggle with it as he was raised in church and in the Bible it says there is a time when you have to draw your sword… he never took a shot that he doubted, as those people were coming in to harm and kill someone he was there to protect.”
”Its a hard thing to have big of heart and then to come home to a totally diff environment, to not carry the scars, haivng seen your brother in arms killed and wounded wishing you could have done more.”
The “horrifying” part of Chris’ story is that he was killed by somebody he was trying to help, she said.
He believed Routh, an army veteran, was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
However, Taya explained that during the trial it was revealed that Routh had not seen any action and had not suffered from a traumatic event.
Asked what she thought about the man who had killed her husband, she said it would be “very destructive to carry that in your heart” but she said she battled it every day.
“He robbed my children and he robbed me, and he did it for no reason. It’s so senseless to kill two people who were there to help you.”
She said she could not carry around the bitterness as “it wont change anything”.
I try not to make that the focus of my life.
She said Chris always respected the right to freedom of speech and felt it was okay if people had a negative opinion of him or what he was doing.
“It didn’t change the fact he knew what he was doing.”
Taya Kyle has written a book about her experiences called ‘American Wife.’
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