Ken Hunter calls his father a hero; his words for attacker Joe Stack are less kind.
Ken was getting a new battery for his wife’s car on Thursday when he first heard reports that a building had been attacked in Austin.
While early news reports indicated the building housed the FBI offices, Ken knew better. That was the building where his father and step-mother worked.
Ken’s father, Vernon, was a tax investigator.
A retired Army officer, Vernon enlisted in the Army when he was 18. Two tours in Vietnam and dozens of other assignments later, Vernon retired from the military and entered the private sector.
Originally he worked for a private company before he was hired by the IRS to investigate tax cases. A meticulous man, Vernon always had his cell phone on and would usually answer on the first ring. So, when Ken called his dad to see if he was okay and didn’t get an answer, he knew something was horribly wrong.
Hours would pass before Ken’s worst fears would be confirmed, but when investigators finally entered the office building they found Vernon Hunter’s body.
In the hours that have passed since the body of Mr. Hunter was uncovered, his son Ken has had time to reflect on the life his father lived and the way in which it was suddenly ended.
Ken calls his father a real American patriot; a man who decided to serve his country as a soldier, putting his life in danger to defend freedom at a time when other men his age were dodging the draft.
In the same breath, Ken calls his father’s attacker, Joe Stack, a coward.
Ken has read posts on-line calling Stack a “hero” who “struck a blow against the government”. He knows of the sites set up on web pages like Facebook.com where people have memorialized Stack and written tributes to him.
Ken sees no honor in what Stack did.
He sees no honor in a man trying to burn down his own home while his family was inside. He sees no honor in a man who can’t pay his taxes but owns a plane, deciding to fly that plane into a building in an effort to claim innocent lives.
He sees no honor in anything that Joseph Stack did on Thursday.
All he sees now is a life cut short. The life of a retired Vietnam veteran and grandfather who will never see his six grandchildren grow up.
