Memories shared of those who served in military service

SIDNEY -- Monday's Memorial Day celebration at Greenwood Cemetery included the solemn moments, but also stories of soldiers who just did their job, who didn't wear the uniform for recognition.

Larry Nelson told the account of "Carlita" who was assigned to a postal unit, an important assignment in a combat zone.

"Carlita was in an Army Reserve unit in Alabama. It was a Postal Unit. A Postal Unit in a combat zone is absolutely critical. Servicemen need to hear from home. Her unit was deployed into Afghanistan," Nelson said.

He said she sat with some Infantry guys during a dinner. He joked that "I wouldn't wish that on anybody, but she did." In time, they offered her to join them on night time presence patrols. The unit assignment required her to be up and ready at 4 a.m. It is a routine that followed her back to civilian life.

"Carlita left there, redeployed with her unit. She had a college degree. She was a biology teacher. By the time she got home, she was still getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning ... and at midnight," Nelson said.

He also talked about Ray who was on a helicopter when it got in a firefight. Ray leaned over on the "collective," the part Nelson compared to a joystick that makes the helicopter go up and down and side to side. Nelson said Ray used his 180-lb body to keep the helicopter on course.

"Yes, they crashed. The three people in the back, the three other soldiers, were killed. Ray wasn't. But the plane smacked into a tree, and rolled. Ray fell out of it and was suspended by straps for the night," he said.

He also talked about the World War II recruit who was assigned to the U.S. Navy, and how his lessons in Boy Scouts helped in military service, working with Morse Code. He was also a man who when asked how many he saved after a rescue mission. He casually said "plenty."