Tim King: Gone to Heaven's Streets

His real legacy is the people he helped and encouraged along the way.

RIP Tim King. Semper fidelis!

(JACKSON, Miss.) - When I heard from Bonnie King about Tim's unexpected death, I had a sense of disbelief, followed by denial - and then finally acceptance leavened by a measure of despair.

There are too few good people fighting against the forces of darkness that threaten to engulf all of us, and he was one of the very good ones.

I made his editorial and personal acquaintance in May 2009, shortly after publishing the first thing I had written in nearly two decades - a short piece on "The Two-State Delusion."

Tim asked me to join the Editorial Board of Salem-News.com and write for him. I told him I was a Marine Corps Vietnam veteran, had PTSD, and had acquired some baggage along the way.

He replied - I may have that old email somewhere, but remember the eight words ever so clearly: "So what? You're a Marine. Join the club." And so I did, for years.

So Tim is gone. Like everyone, he had his ups and downs in life, as I myself can attest ever so well from my own life. But his real legacy is the people he helped and encouraged along the way, including me, even more than the ideas he espoused and the causes he sponsored.

Well, I am not a religious man, but I am a spiritual one. And as we continue the fight down here, I want to believe that his spirit is now standing guard over us with other Marines who have gone from us here, on Heaven's streets - be that Paradise or Valhalla or whatever.

Be at rest, my friend. We'll keep the faith as best we can, until it comes our time to join your ranks. Semper fidelis!

(Dr.) Alan Ned Sabrosky

USMC (1959-69)

Alan Sabrosky (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is a writer and consultant specializing in national and international security affairs. In December 1988, he received the Superior Civilian Service Award after more than five years of service at the U.S. Army War College as Director of Studies, Strategic Studies Institute, and holder of the General of the Army Douglas MacArthur Chair of Research. He is listed in WHO'S WHO IN THE EAST (23rd ed.). A Marine Corps Vietnam veteran and a 1986 graduate of the U.S. Army War College, Dr. Sabrosky's teaching and research appointments have included the United States Military Academy, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Middlebury College and Catholic University; while in government service, he held concurrent adjunct professorships at Georgetown University and the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Dr. Sabrosky has lectured widely on defense and foreign affairs in the United States and abroad. [Written by Editor Tim King]