'I'm glad the guy is dead'
Tragic Marine’s folks rip Green Beret slay rap
The parents of a Marine killed by a terrorist blast in Afghanistan in 2010 are dumbfounded that the once-decorated Green Beret who killed the bomb’s suspected maker is now being tried on murder charges.
“I think that’s crazy,” David Kleinschmidt, stepfather of Sgt. Jeremy R. McQueary, said a day after Friday’s revelation that former Army commando Maj. Mathew Golsteyn could face the death penalty.
“I don’t understand why they are bringing this up again,” Kleinschmidt told The Post in a call to his home in Columbus, Ind.
“We were in a war — and things happen in war,” he said.
“Personally, I think they should just drop [the charges] . . . I’m glad the guy is dead,” he added.
McQueary was 27 when a militant set off an explosion that killed him and another Marine, Lance Cpl. Larry M. Johnson, 19, (below) at a bazaar in southern Afghanistan.
“Our rules that we have to follow are not the rules that the Taliban follows,” said McQueary’s mother, Deborah Kleinschmidt.
“So why punish our guy for something that the enemy is doing to us?”
The Army announced Friday that it had charged Golsteyn with premeditated murder for admittedly hunting down and killing the suspected bomb maker in February 2010.
The suspect’s body was never found.
Golsteyn has maintained that he shot the militant over concerns about the safety of American soldiers and of two Afghanistan men who defied the Taliban when they apprehended the suspect and turned him over to US forces.
“I’m sure his family has to be stressed out beyond belief,” the mom said of Golsteyn. “And my heart goes out to them.”
If anything, Golsteyn may deserve a medal, not a murder rap, the stepfather said.
“I’m glad he found the guy,” he added. “I’m glad the guy’s dead because I don’t think he should have been in society.”
Reached Saturday at his home in Virginia, Golsteyn implied that his case was moving foward quickly since Thursday, when he was informed of the charges.
“I only have 24 hours with family,” Golsteyn told The Post before declining comment further.
The two slain Marines had been working with Golsteyn’s Green Beret team in the Taliban-controlled town of Marjah.
After the bombing, Golsteyn, a Silver Star recipient, and his fellow soldiers gathered intelligence and canvassed nearby homes in search of the terrorist.
The next day, two Afghan men cooperating with the US turned over a bound man they said was responsible for the Marines’ deaths. But the man was quickly freed almost for lack of evidence.
Speaking to Fox News for a 2016 special report, Golsteyn explained that he feared the suspect would be free to retaliate.
“There’s limits on how long you can hold guys,” he said.
“You realize quickly that you make things worse. It is an inevitable outcome that people who are cooperating with coalition forces, when identified, will suffer some terrible torture or be killed.”
Golsteyn previously had been found guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer and was discharged.