Bob Van Steenburg (pic­tured), served for 27 years in the mil­i­tary and retired as a United States Army Colonel in 1991. He cur­rent­ly serves as the President of the Board of Directors of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. On Veterans Day, he reflect­ed on how his oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty grew from his com­mit­ments as a sol­dier. He wrote, ​“A sol­dier stands for more than just him or her­self. A sol­dier stands for the nation and its cit­i­zens. A sol­dier gives of his or her life to oth­ers, and some do that to the fullest extent. A soldier’s life is about oth­ers.… We Americans are bet­ter peo­ple than what we demon­strate by our use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. We proud­ly state that our nation was found­ed on the con­cepts of life and lib­er­ty. Congress has passed and the American peo­ple have approved amend­ments to our Constitution to pro­tect the lives of our cit­i­zens. The death penal­ty stands in direct oppo­si­tion to these con­cepts.” He con­clud­ed, ​“My ser­vice as a sol­dier was to pro­tect and defend the nation. My work to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is to pro­tect and defend the ideals estab­lished with our nation’s found­ing.” Read full text below.

(B. Van Steenburg, ​“A Soldier and the Death Penalty,” National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Blog, November 10, 2011). See U.S. Military and New Voices.

A Soldier and the Death Penalty

November 11, 2011. Veterans Day.

It has been two decades since I retired from the United States Army, com­plet­ing a career of twen­ty-sev­en years (1964 – 1991). It is also slight­ly more than a dozen years since I have been active in the effort to end the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the United States. 

Some peo­ple may find those two state­ments about my life to be incon­gru­ent; they don’t appear to track; it doesn’t seem ​“nat­ur­al” that a solid­er would oppose the death penal­ty. For me, there is a straight line between my ser­vice to the nation and my work to end the prac­tice of state spon­sored killing. As our nation paus­es to hon­or the ser­vice of our vet­er­ans, I want­ed to take the oppor­tu­ni­ty to lay out why I and a num­ber of my fel­low vet­er­ans work so hard to end exe­cu­tions in the United States.

A sol­dier stands for more than just him or her­self. A sol­dier stands for the nation and its cit­i­zens. A sol­dier gives of his or her life to oth­ers, and some do that to the fullest extent. A soldier’s life is about others. 

The sol­dier takes an oath “…to sup­port and defend the Constitution of the United States…” I once heard a Franciscan Priest say, ​“This life is not about you. You are about life.” A sol­dier lives that out. 

So too, do those who stand in oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty. That work is about the life and lives of oth­ers, and not just the con­demned. Opposition to the death penal­ty, as Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation and Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights remind us, is also about the lives of vic­tims’ families.

But it is also some­thing more. It is about us, the American peo­ple, the nation as a whole. We Americans are bet­ter peo­ple than what we demon­strate by our use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. We proud­ly state that our nation was found­ed on the con­cepts of life and lib­er­ty. Congress has passed and the American peo­ple have approved amend­ments to our Constitution to pro­tect the lives of our cit­i­zens. The death penal­ty stands in direct oppo­si­tion to these concepts. 

My ser­vice as a sol­dier was to pro­tect and defend the nation. My work to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is to pro­tect and defend the ideals estab­lished with our nation’s found­ing. The code of the U.S. Army is Duty, Honor, Country. I believe that I have lived to that code both as a sol­dier and as a per­son work­ing to end the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the United States. This life is not about me; I am about life.

Bob Van Steenburg

Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired)

President, Board of Directors, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

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