Afterward: Murder of a Soldier

1SGT (Ret) Rich and Terri Schlack are proud and supportive parents when their first born son, Ryan, decides to go into the army. After all, they are very familiar with military life and what safer place to be than on a military base.

Afterward is the unique story of the Schlack family's life after Ryan is murdered senselessly in Fort Hood, Texas in 2009. The heartbreak of burying a son, the unforeseeable emotional and physical pain, the tensions of experiencing a military court, and the disbelief and frustration when the sentence is handed down.

Terri and Rich take action that hopefully will keep Barto Abadia serving his full sentence at Leavenworth. They meet with the Clemency and Parole Board in Washington DC annually and look for supportive documentation. The Schlacks also learned from Ryan's friends what Ryan was like as a friend and soldier.

The bottom line is that the military judicial system should put the sentencing phase of the trial into the hands of the military judge not the panel (jury). There are no sentencing parameters in a military court. A sentence should not be lax because the accused was drunk at the time and, that the best military in the world should follow its own words in their "Soldier's Code".