In an interview (his wife) gave on NBC’s “Today” show, she told the interviewer that part of the heritage Aaron’s children will receive is that, “They will take away his love for Christ. They will take his dream and his love for the country and they will know what an amazing man he is.”

On Friday afternoon, Aaron Vaughn called his wife, Kimberly, at their home in Virginia Beach from his combat station in Afghanistan. “It was actually a great conversation — probably just about time before he went out to work that night,” Kimberly Vaughn said.

“We got to tell each other we loved each other, so it was a great conversation to have.”

On Saturday, August 6, 2011, Aaron Carson Vaughn was one of 30 American service members who were killed when their helicopter was shot down in eastern Afghanistan.

His life was taken from his family and given for us all.

He was a Navy Seal based in Virginia Beach, and leaves behind his wife, Kimberly, and his two young children, 2-year-old son Reagan and 2-month-old daughter Chamberlyn.

Saturday morning Kimberly saw the TV news about a helicopter being shot down, and then her doorbell rang. “I thought, ‘Oh, hopefully it’s just a neighbor,’ and as I rounded the stairs I saw the men in uniform and I just fell to my knees. There’s no preparing for it. It’s something you see in the movies. It’s not something you’re supposed to live through.”

Her father was with her as the Navy officers told her that her husband had been killed in action. Kimberly told the press, “I fell to my knees and cried and didn’t want to hear it, but it’s the truth. You want it to be a mistake. You want them to say it’s the wrong person, but I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.”

“I want to tell the world that he was an amazing man, that he was a wonderful husband, and a fabulous father to two wonderful children. He was a warrior for our country and he wouldn’t want to leave this earth any other way than how he did,” said Kimberly.

“He loved his job,” she told CNN. “There was no way — even if you could tell him that this would have happened, he would have done it anyway. All those men are like that. They’re selfless.”

His grandmother, Geneva Vaughn of Union City, Tenn., said “Aaron was a Christian and he’s with Jesus today. He told us when we saw him last November that he wasn’t afraid . . . He said, ‘Granny, don’t worry about me.’”

At 6-foot-4, 200 pounds, the member of Seal Team Six was “just all muscle,” Geneva Vaughn said. “He was a tough warrior, but he was a gentle man” Seal Team Six is the special operations unit that carried out the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

The 30 year-old Vaughn had been decorated for his previous tours in Afghanistan and was re-deployed just weeks after his daughter’s birth. “We never knew where he was,” Grandmother Vaughn said. “We supported him in his decisions. Aaron was very modest. He didn’t like for you to brag on him. He would say he was just doing his job.”

Vaughn and his wife were building a house, but it turns out that what Aaron Vaughn was actually building was a legacy. In an interview Kimberly gave on NBC’s “Today” show, she told the interviewer that part of the heritage Aaron’s children will receive is that, “They will take away his love for Christ. They will take his dream and his love for the country and they will know what an amazing man he is.”

His family says that Aaron Vaughn will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Mike Sharman, a resident of Foothills of Faith Farm in Madison County, Virginia, has served as an attorney and guardian for children for more than two decades. Mike writes a weekly editorial column published by the Culpeper Star-Exponent and others, and has written Faith of the Fathers: Religion and Matters of Faith Contained in the Presidents’ Inaugural Addresses from George Washington to George W. Bush. He also has a work in progress, to be entitled Endowed By Our Creator: Documentary Evidence of Our Christian Heritage. You may contact him at [email protected]