'Professor' pays a heavy price in Afghanistan

'Remember us'
At Michael Bhatia's funeral on May 16, Tom Garcia and Rachael Ridenour wore red argyle socks in honor of their fallen teammate.

Human Terrain manager Steve Fondacaro presented Bhatia's parents and sister with the Defense of Freedom medal awarded to the scholar, the civilian equivalent of the Purple Heart.

"Because of Michael Bhatia's superb contributions to his team's mission, significant numbers of American soldiers and Afghan civilians, who would have otherwise been casualties of war, are alive and together with their families today," the citation reads.

That evening, back in Providence, friends from both sides of the wire gathered at The Wild Colonial, and raised pints of Guinness to bid Michael Bhatia farewell.

In the weeks afterward, Bhatia's circle struggled with his death.

Professor Keith Brown returned to his desk on campus, across the atrium from the office that used to belong Bhatia, and weighed the meaning of his colleague's sacrifice — a question scholarly inquiry could not resolve.

It wasn't until late July, while serving as lay leader of his church in Providence that Brown found, if not an answer, then perhaps a route to one.

At the pulpit that Sunday, Brown spoke about the ripples of the war on terrorism and the way they connect us. He spoke about Michael Bhatia. Then he asked congregants to join him in a responsive reading of a poem by Archibald MacLeish, "The Young Dead Soldiers."

"Whether our lives were for peace and a new hope, or for nothing, we cannot say; it is you who must say this," Bhatia's colleague read.

"We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning," the worshippers answered.

"We were young, they say. We have died. Remember us."

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