Scott Nisely remembered, laid to rest

Marshalltown, Ia. – Sgt. 1st Class Scott Nisely was remembered Monday as a good father and husband, a friend to many, and as a patriot who loved serving his country.

Nisely, 48, was the oldest soldier in the Iowa Army National Guard to have been killed in Iraq. An overflow crowd of more than 700 people attended his funeral at First Baptist Church here, where he had told a group of school children last year that if he didn’t return home from the war, he would see them again in heaven.

“He will be greatly missed, Amen,” said Pastor Dick Sipe, who conducted the service.

Niseley died on Sept. 30 in a firefight with Iraqi insurgents near Al Asad that also claimed the life of Sgt. Kampha Sourivong, 20, of Iowa City, who was buried Sunday. They were both members of Company C, 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry, based in Iowa Falls.

Friends and family recalled Nisely Monday as an extraordinary person who relished military service and its brotherhood so much that he enlisted in the Iowa National Guard in 2002 after a 22-year career with the Marine Corps on active duty and as a reservist. He joined the Guard as a corporal, even though it required a steep reduction from his Marine rank of major, his son, Justin Nisely, recalled.

Nisely, an infantry veteran of Operation Desert Storm, lay in a open casket prior to the funeral in his Marine dress blues with his ceremonial officer’s sword.

After the service, about 75 soldiers from the Iowa National Guard stood at attention and saluted outside as seven Marines and one sailor placed the flag-draped casket in a hearse while a bagpiper played "Amazing Grace."

Nisely had worked for 12 years with the U.S. Postal Service in Ames, Des Moines, and Marshalltown as a supervisor, clerk and letter carrier. A fleet of 26 postal delivery trucks followed the hearse in a procession to the edge of Marshalltown after the funeral. His body was transported to Syracuse, Neb., where he grew up and where he will be buried on Wednesday.

“He was a great leader and friend. Everything about him glowed,” said James Williams, 41, of Hampton, who had served with Nisely in the National Guard. Both men had prior service in the Marines, and when Nisely joined his Guard unit they both hit it off, he said.

Fred George of Marshalltown knew Nisely both as a church member and as a letter carrier. He recalled that after he once joked about letter carriers who simply tossed his mail into his mailbox at his house, Nisely began neatly placing his letters in the mailbox with a rubber-band wrapped around them.

They had many friendly conversations as Nisely ate lunch in his postal van in front of their home, and he noted that Nisely often recalled good things about his own parents, his wife, and their two grown children.
Nisely’s wife, Geri, who spoke at the funeral, described her husband as a sensitive man who would tell her how much he missed laying beside her at night while he was in Iraq.

Although she had spent her entire married life as a military spouse, his deployment over the past year had been the hardest of any, she acknowledged.

“I appreciate all the support we have received. It has been incredible,” she said.

Besides son, Justin, of Greeley, Colo., Nisely’s other survivors include a daughter, Sarah Swinton of Ames, his parents, J.C. and Norma Jean Nisely of Syracuse, and three brothers.

Prior to leaving for Iraq, Nisely had placed one of his military identifcation tags on his drum set at First Baptist Church, where he had been part of a worship team that provides music. Monday’s service began with the mourners clapping their hands and singing several lively Christian songs, although some of Nisely’s fellow worship team members repeatedly had to wipe tears from their eyes as they sang and played.

“We believe with all of our hearts that Scott is in heaven, and that is a blessed thing,” Sipe said.

From the Des Moines Register

Related Link:
Scott Nisely killed by small arms fire