Andrew Nelson remembered

ST. JOHNS - Kristi Nelson's Christmas morning started with a Webcam conversation with her husband, who urged her to get up and go celebrate with family.

He had already persuaded her to leave their apartment in Germany and go back to their hometown while he kept doing what mattered most: serving his country.

"He was just happy-go-lucky," she said.

But Army Pfc. Andrew Nelson didn't make it through that night's mission in Baghdad, Iraq.

Tuesday night, his 19-year-old widow was surrounded by more than 100 family members and friends sharing her sorrow.

Silence and candlelight lingered in the center of town as St. Johns remembered its sole fallen soldier of the Iraq war.

They mourned a son and neighbor lost too soon, a man who died doing what he dreamed.

"I'm in shock," said Kristi Nelson, who married her classmate just months after high school graduation.

"I stare at his picture and still think he's there, coming home."

Nelson, also 19, was a star in the swimming pool and a hard-working kid who joined the Army almost as soon as he had the chance.

He left for his first tour of Iraq at the end of August.

Lifelong next-door neighbor and Marine veteran Gary Gross was proud to see the path that Nelson took, even a little jealous of the action he would see.

But he and his wife, Carol, were devastated by the news. They joined those who watched as red, white and blue balloons floated into the night air for Nelson, a single white one drifting away from the bunch.

"He's a hero," Gross said. "This war may be losing popularity, but the soldiers fighting it have total support."

Nelson's name will join those of the others listed on Clinton County's war memorial, where the group gathered Tuesday night.

He was killed by an improvised explosive device, or roadside bomb. The bombs have killed more U.S. troops than any other weapon used by insurgents.

He is one of at least 3,000 Americans killed since the war began - one heartbreaking story that's brought friends, even strangers, together.

In the middle of his grief, Nelson's dad, Alan, also has to finish renovating and relocating his business, Sunfire Wireless.

"There are people I don't even know ... painting, drywalling," he said.

He and his wife, Tami, also parents to 17-year-old Jessica and 12-year-old Stephanie - have always supported the U.S. government and its soldiers' work in Iraq.

"This hasn't changed that," Alan Nelson said. "If anything, it's magnified."

From the Journal

Related Link:
Andrew H. Nelson dies of injuries from I.E.D.