The article screwed his name up - Phil didn't serve in the military, his brother was SF Marine and was killed in the sandbox in a green on blue attack (and those are his brother Eric's dog tags that Phil wore). There are pic's somewhere around here of Obama handing Phil something at the funeral.he said he was, and backed up everything else he talked about. i never had a reason to doubt, and the article references him as 'sergeant' christian, phillip austin...
I talked to one of his business partners sometime back whom told me he had died in an accident in Costa Rica (which does not really surprise me given the condition of the roads down there) traveling from his home in Golfito to his condo in Los Suenos.
For those that want to have a bit more insight into Phil and his brother Eric:
http://www.njrunforthefallen.org/ssgt-eric-d-christian.html
And I don't think Phil would object to me posting his picture now.
RIP my friend.