Right before Memorial Day this year, #FL18 Congressman @BrianMastFL penned an op-ed in Fox News in which he invoked several names of the Fallen to politicize his message on the U.S. response to COVID-19. A THREAD 1/13
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/memorial-day-fallen-comrades-show-how-thrive-coronavirus-rep-brian-mast

One of those names was SGT Andrew Nicol, KIA 8/8/10 by an IED in Afghanistan on his 5th deployment. Mast wrote, Andrew “would probably say that he didn’t live in tents, cargo ship containers, mud huts & swamps so the people he fought for can curl up & hide.” 2/13

Andrew was my little brother. 3/13

Using my brother’s name in this way was not only deeply offensive, but also dangerous. Who knows what Andrew would say today about the #Coronavirus? That is not for @BrianMastFL or anyone else to speculate. 4/13

@BrianMastFL was not friends with Andrew. He never once reached out to my family, we never met him at the memorials, and we had never heard of him until that op-ed. 5/13

Invoking my brother as a way to encourage citizens to disregard public health advice during this pandemic was shameless and deadly. To date, Florida has seen over 734,000 cases of COVID-19 and over 15,000 deaths due to the virus. 6/13 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/florida-coronavirus-cases.html

I don’t think Andrew would have wanted his memory to be used in a way that runs counter to his final act. To suggest that Andrew would want us to do unsafe things as an homage to his sacrifice is disrespectful. 7/13

As a military veteran myself and as somebody who volunteered to deploy as a civilian analyst to Afghanistan multiple times after Andrew’s death, I don’t consider myself a coward. 8/13

I thank healthcare workers for their bravery and hard work, I thank scientists for working tirelessly to develop effective treatment, and I thank those who have been responsible and kind in dealing with each other in this pandemic. 9/13

I am sharing this now instead of on Memorial Day out of respect for everyone who marched for justice at that time after the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and so many others (and the victims' families). 10/13

People should know that my family was not consulted about his article. What @BrianMastFL did was wrong and was hurtful to my family. 11/13

It was also incredibly irresponsible during the pandemic. It put me and my family in a terribly difficult position, having to publicly address Congressman Mast’s immoral use of a hero to influence or justify dangerous behavior. 12/13

Ten years after Andrew’s death, we do not wish to have his memory used as a message of misinformation; particularly one that used Memorial Day - a day dedicated to remembering the fallen - to encourage actions that put other lives in peril. 13/13