 Chicago Tribune -- When Marine officers came to Susan Nelson's Wisconsin home Monday night with the news of her son's death, she shut the door on them four times before accepting reality.
She had just talked to her son, Cpl. Richard Nelson, Saturday--as they do weekly--and he reassured her that his second deployment to Iraq was God's will.
"He said, 'As much as I don't care to be here, I know God has a plan,'." she said. She did not expect to hear about his death two days later.
Cpl. Richard Nelson, 23, of Kenosha died Monday.
He was in a combat operation when an improvised explosive device detonated about 4:30 p.m., said Lt. Patrick Evans, a military spokesman.
Nelson died a week before his first wedding anniversary, which is next Monday, said his mother, who lives near Kenosha in Pleasant Prairie.
Lance Cpl. Dean D. Opicka, 29, of Waukesha, Wis., also died with Nelson. Both were assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve's 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division at the Milwaukee-based Fox Company.
Nelson said her son joined the Marines after he graduated from Christian Life School in Kenosha.
He was 18 and did not plan to make a lifelong commitment to the Marine Corps.
Instead, he wanted to go back to college and become an elementary school teacher because he got along so well with children, his mother said.
"He never dreamed he'd be going to Iraq," said Nelson, 54. But her son was deployed to Iraq twice, once from July 2005 to April 2006 and again last September.
Growing up, Richard Nelson was outgoing and religious, Susan Nelson said, but he was not always enthusiastic about gatherings with his extended family.
Yet after he returned from his first deployment in Iraq, Nelson said, her son was closer to his family, but quieter and more pensive.
"He had been there before, he knew what war was," Nelson said.
He took every chance he got to spend time with his family, especially his high school sweetheart and wife, Kristen. 
Yet, despite his anxiety about leaving his family and the effects of war penetrating into his life, Nelson said, her son was fearless.
"He's a Marine," Nelson said. "Those Marines--even if they are afraid, they don't tell you." |
God bless our soldiers and their families. Protect them from harm; comfort the suffering.