| Sources |
- [S27] The Daily Times, http://www.thedailytimes.com/, (Blount County, Tennessee), 10 May 2009.
Turner - Brown engagement
- [S27] The Daily Times, http://www.thedailytimes.com/, (Blount County, Tennessee), 5 Dec 2010.
A time to heal: Soldier Nick Brown, wounded in Afghanistan, comes home
By Linda Braden Albert lindaba@thedailytimes.com
For a young soldier stationed in Afghanistan, being wounded by an improvised explosive device (IED) might not seem like a blessing. Nick Brown, 21, and his family soon discovered, however, that God truly does move in mysterious ways.
Brown, a specialist in Bravo Troop, 1-33 Cavalry, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, left for Afghanistan in January for a one-year tour of duty.
“Our normal day over there, if we’re not on guard, consists of going out, driving down the roads and clearing the road to make sure we didn’t run into any problems,” Brown said. “If we were going to a city, go there and meet people, search houses, then load back up in the truck and go to the house. Over there a mission that should take easily two hours would take us about five hours because of the condition of the roads. I don’t think we went over about five to 10 miles an hour the whole time, unless we had to get somewhere quick.”
Brown was injured during one of the missions in August. In September, the young soldier was back home in time to be with his wife, Heather, when she gave birth to their son.
Alarming call
Brown’s parents, Pat and Horace Brown, recalled the day they found out Nick had been wounded. A call from Heather’s mother early on Aug. 22 gave them the news.
“The first thing she said was, ‘Nick’s OK,’ and I said, ‘OK, but what’s wrong?’ It was one of those calls you don’t want to get, but it’s better than the other one that you definitely don’t want to get,” Pat Brown said. “His truck had hit an IED, and he was the gunner on top of the truck. He had been taken to Salerno, in Afghanistan, to a hospital. They weren’t sure about his injuries. They thought he may have a concussion and possibly some spinal damage.
“Then a couple of hours later, I got a phone call from somebody with the Army, and that’s when he told us there was possibly some spinal damage. When they first got to him, he couldn’t move his legs. That made it a little worse, we weren’t sure what was going to happen from there.”
The family was not sure where Brown would be sent for treatment.
“We were on standby for four days, not knowing if they were going to fly us to wherever he was or not.” Pat said. “Of course, Heather was pregnant at the time and it was killing her because she wasn’t supposed to be flying that late.”
Time with family
Nick was in a hospital in Germany for three or four days, then was sent to one of the hospitals in Washington, D.C., before being sent home to the base in Clarksville. Visible reminders of his ordeal include a scar on each cheek.
“Two of the three bones on his face were fractured, and they told him that for six months, he could have no combat, no nothing, because any slight hit could fracture those completely and they’d have to do major surgery,” she said. “He was fortunate. He was very blessed. He was basically hurt just bad enough to get him home.”
Nick was also present when his son Austin was born Sept. 16, three weeks early, weighing 4 pounds, 5 ounces. The baby had some serious health issues and was immediately taken to a hospital near Nashville and admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care. Nick stayed with Heather until she was released for travel, while his parents went with Austin. He was in NICU two weeks.
Back with family
Heather Brown, 19, described the circumstances surrounding that terrifying call.
“It was rough,” she said, holding her husband’s hand. “It was definitely the worst phone call I ever got.”
She said she coped by staying busy.
“I have three nieces now, so I went and got them, took care of them,” she said. “They helped keep me distracted. I had a lot of work to do anyway, because with Nick coming home, I had to find a place to live (near Clarksville) and get all our stuff moved in, get our new doctors. Then about three weeks later, here comes Austin. (Nick) got home Sept. 1 and we had Austin Sept. 16.”
In Afghanistan, Nick was at first told his wounds were superficial and that he would go back to his unit. When the extent of the injuries was known, and Nick discovered he was being sent to Germany, he knew then he was going home.
“I was pretty upset about it because I wanted to go back and be with my guys, because there wasn’t hardly anybody left,” Nick said. “When I was talking to Heather in Germany, it finally hit me that I was going home, that I would see my family that I hadn’t seen in eight months. So then I was pretty excited and ready to get home.”
Nick is recovering from the head wounds but is now looking ahead to surgery to repair torn cartilage in his knee. He surmises that an ammo can struck him during the blast.
Loss of friends
Nick’s unit faced another tragedy shortly after Nick left Germany. He found out that his troop, on another mission, hit another IED. The driver and a young soldier Nick had trained were killed, while three other men were seriously injured. The man who replaced Nick as gunner was one of those who was seriously injured. He is in Texas now, recovering from having every bone from his waist down broken.
Horace Brown said, “Nick was having a hard time leaving his unit, because they had become like family. So we were hoping and praying that he would get home before he found out.”
Nick said he had an inkling that something was wrong. He finally persuaded Heather to tell him what had happened during a telephone call from D.C.
“I got off the phone and lost it,” he said. “Everything made sense.”
The deceased soldiers, both 20 years old, are Chad Coleman, from Georgia, and Adam Novak, from Wisconsin.
Dealing with the deaths of friends who become like family is difficult. Nick said, “I try to play it off like it’s a dream. That way if I don’t think it’s real life, it don’t bug me much. But there’s some days that playing it like a dream don’t help.”
The soldier said he has seen little progress in Afghanistan.
“Me, personally, I think it’s garbage,” he said. “As long as we’re over there, soldiers are going to die. They can say we’re making progress, but I think as long as there’s U.S. soldiers coming home dead, we’re not making progress.”
Power of prayer
Horace Brown was formerly the educational director at Forest Hill Baptist Church and later senior pastor at Cold Springs, and served as director of the Chilhowee Baptist Center for 10 years. He is now director of missions at the East Tennessee Baptist Association in Newport. Pat Brown was director of the Ministers’ Wives Fellowship through the Chilhowee Baptist Association. They credit many prayers with bringing their son safely home and bringing their grandson safely through his earlier health problems.
Pat Brown said, “All kinds of little things we can see now, after it’s happened, that it just had to be God. Bringing him home, getting him out (of Afghanistan). Then Austin was born three weeks early. Nick wouldn’t have been here for that. It’s just amazing when we look back. But when it happened, it was one of those things you don’t want to hear about.”
She definitely sees a difference in her son, who attended Heritage High School and entered the Army in 2008 after graduating from Sequoyah High School in Vonore.
“When he left, he was boy,” she said. “He came back a man.”
- [S27] The Daily Times, http://www.thedailytimes.com/, (Blount County, Tennessee), 10 May 2009.
Turner - Brown engagement
Heather Dawn Turner, daughter of Bobby and Sheila Turner, of Madisonville, is engaged to marry Nicholas (Nick) Aaron Brown, son of The Rev. Dr. Horace and Pat Brown, of Maryville, at 5 p.m. May 30 at Hiwassee Church of God, Madisonville. Friends and relatives are invited to attend.
The future bride is the granddaughter of Louise Turner, of Madisonville, the late Bill Turner, Jimmy House, of Oregon, and the late Shirley Rodgers.
The future bridegroom is the grandson of the late Fred and Lillie Davis and the late Edgar and Hettie Brown.
The bride-to-be will graduate from Sequoyah High School May 23.
The bridegroom-to-be is a 2007 graduate of Sequoyah High School. He is a United States Army Cavalry Scout at Fort Campbell, Ky.
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Abt 1989 - (~ 36 years)
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