Patrick J. Nelson

Hey everyone, thank you for taking time to look at Real Combat Life. I just wanted to provide you with a little insight about me, why I served and what I have done. I grew up in a very small town in Minnesota. By small, I mean no McDonalds and no stop lights. In the 2nd grade, my class wrote to soldiers who were in Operation Desert Storm. My pen-pal and I quickly formed a friendship through our letters. When he returned home, he even came to my classroom to visit us. From that time on I became fascinated with the military and knew that was what I wanted to do.

I enlisted in the National Guard right after I turned 17. I knew that I wanted to be an Active Duty soldier but this was the quickest way for me to enlist in the military because I was still a junior in high school. I attended Basic Combat Training the summer between my junior and senior. The following summer, I completed my Advanced Individual Training to be a field artillery cannon crewmember. I started college the same month I ended my advanced training. I still always knew that I would go Active Duty but had told my mom that I would give college a try. About 2 weeks after school began the attacks on 9/11 took place.

I walked in to the recruiters that week and started the process of transferring over to serve with my Active Duty brothers. I saw the images on TV of soldiers preparing to head to war but I knew that it was slim that my National Guard unit would be called up. I withdrew from my classes and impatiently waited for the paperwork to be processed. Finally, in January of 2002, I was headed over to Germany for my first duty assignment. My military occupational specialty dealt with howitzer cannons, however; the unit I was assigned to was a multiple launch rocket systems Brigade. 6 months after arriving in Germany, I was reassigned to the historic 173rd Airborne Brigade out of Vicenza, Italy. I re-enlisted twice throughout my career and specifically chose to remain with the “Sky Soldiers” of the 173rd. I spent the rest of my military career with the 173rd which included a 12 month tour in Iraq, a 12 month tour in Afghanistan and then a 15 month tour in Afghanistan. I progressed through the ranks and served many different roles on a variety of missions. In June of 2005, I was wounded by a 107mm rocket while preparing to download a resupply helicopter that landed at our remote Forward Observation Base.

While I was on my 2 tours to Afghanistan, I began to take online college classes through Central Texas College. Prior to leaving Afghanistan on my 2nd tour, I graduated from there was an Associate’s Degree in General Studies. I made the decision that I was not going to re-enlist as I was still having back problems from being wounded and wanted to continue my education and take on new challenges. I do not regret leaving the Army but I miss the friends I made and the camaraderie that we shared. I hope this site provides you with some insight in to what life was like for us in Iraq and Afghanistan. I invite all veterans to share their stories and experiences as well and look forward to hearing them myself. Thank you again for stopping by!