Collegiate Times

Lt. Jeffrey Kaylor, of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets class of 2001, was killed in action on April 7, 2003. With the airing of  ?A Family at War? last night at 10 p.m. on PBS, Americans across the country were taken into the world of the Kaylor?s family, exposing the pain of loss as well as putting one family?s face to a deepening divide in the country.

The film was put together by Danish filmmaker J?rgen Flindt Pedersen, who first heard about Kaylor from a newspaper article about the creation of a foundation at his high school in Fairfax, Va. A Pedersen researcher met Roxanne Kaylor, Jeff Kaylor?s mother, at the ceremony to establish the foundation, and shortly thereafter Pederson shot the first interview, according to the PBS website.

The crux of the film is how the Kaylor family members have come to deal with the complicated emotions stemming from the loss of their son, brother and husband. Roxanne has become avidly against the war, writing to her elected officials at least once a month and referring to the administration as ?Bush and Associates? in an interview with her on the PBS website.

Jeff Kaylor?s father, Mike Kaylor, who had a long military career, believes that his son did what he was asked to do and that the war in Iraq is a necessary part of the larger War on Terror, according to the website. Jeff?s widow, Jenna Crosby Kaylor, agrees.

?He didn't raise his right hand and say, ?Please take my life from me,? but he did raise his right hand and say, ?I will defend this country against all enemies; foreign and domestic.? That is exactly what he was doing when he left this earth, and no other circumstance could have been more honorable. He is my hero ultimately, and many others' as well,? Jenna Kaylor said.

Jeff Kaylor and his wife, another member of the VTCC who graduated in the fall of 2001, were married in July 2002, a scant month before Kaylor was to be deployed to Iraq as part of the 39th Field Artillery Batallion.

?Jeff and I discussed what our service was going to be like on September 11th, 2001. He had been in the army for 2 days at that point, and I was just finishing up my last semester. We knew that the war was brought onto our ?turf,? and we wanted to make sure that never happened again,? said Jenna Kaylor, who was deployed to the Middle East shortly thereafter according to the PBS website on the documentary. 

The first Tech alumnus to be killed in the most recent Iraq war, Kaylor was buried at Arlington Cemetery on April 23, 2003. He was posthumously awarded the Army Forces Expeditionary Medal as well as the Purple Heart. His name is inscribed on the ?Ut Prosim? pillar of the War Memorial.For all of the attention that the documentary brought onto the lives of those close to Kaylor, Jenna Kaylor feels not more than a bit duped by the filmmaker.

?I was misled in the purpose of the film, as I was informed it would be about American patriotism. That is the only reason why I authorized it to be filmed. When I viewed it for the first time in Denmark, I was appalled at the anti-American? and anti-military message it gave,? Jenna Kaylor said. ?I have not watched it again, with a different frame of mind. Perhaps it would be different.?

Scholarship foundations have been set up for Kaylor along with another Tech cadet killed in battle. The funds, endowed through the sale of specially designed car magnets, currently have just over $49,000 and just over $79,500, respectively, Col. Rock Roszak said. There are currently two Price scholarship cadets and one Price scholarship cadet, but those numbers will probably increase by one each in the upcoming year, Roszak said.

The Independent Lens series will show ?A Family at War? again on Nov. 9 at 10 pm, Nov. 10 at 5 a.m. and Nov. 13 at 4 a.m.