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A Local Marine Never Forgotten: ‘I Died Doing Something Meaningful’

For Memorial Day, we take you back to August of last year, the 10 year anniversary of the death of local LCpl. Travis M. Nelson, who gave his life in Afghanistan on August 18, 2011.

Gold Star Mom Beckie Nelson spoke with NorthEscambia.com about the last decade and her son’s sacrifice in Afghanistan.

I Died Doing Something Meaningful.

And she shared with us a short, simple note LCpl Travis Nelson left behind in his field book just in case he did not return.

“Dear friends & family, If your reading this it seems I didn’t get to come home. I love each and every one of you and I want you to know I have no regrets. I died doing something meaningful.”

He died a few short weeks after writing that note.

Beckie Nelson clings to those words that provided her peace and understanding.

“We received Travis’ belongings weeks after the funeral. The emotions we felt as we opened the trunk are unexplainable. Still in disbelief, our hearts still in pieces, it was gut wrenching to say the least. When I saw this page I closed the book, laid down on his bed with it in my arms and I actually slept for the first time in weeks.”

Growing Up With A Promise To His Mother

A young Travis Nelson grew up in Bratt, just two doors down from the modern day Travis M. Nelson Park that was named in his memory about a year after its 2010 opening.

He would play on those very grounds, shooting his BB gun and riding his go cart. His first love in his young life was fishing. At four years old, he would spend hours with relatives fishing on the Escambia River. No matter how old he got, he never gave up the love for a fishing pole and hook. He also loved playing baseball at Northwest Escambia’s Bradberry Park in Walnut Hill.

On Sept., 11, 2001, Travis Nelson was nine years old when America was attacked. He was not playing; he was fixated on the news.

And he made a promise that day. The kind of promise to a mother that a young man will do anything to uphold.

“I’ll never forget him saying ‘Momma, I will protect you. I will be a soldier’,” Beckie Nelson said.

The family last saw Travis on July 13, 2011, as he deployed for Afghanistan. Their last phone conversation was Monday, August, 15, 2011, as he requested items for a care package.

That care package was still sitting by the front door three days later. It never made it to the mail.

August 18, 2011.

It was about noon on Thursday, August 18, 2011, at the Nelson home in Bratt.

An American flag fluttered in the breeze on the porch.

And three men in military uniforms stood at the door. Beckie Nelson knew what that meant.

“I just screamed and said no,” she said. “I just went to my knees and said don’t let them come in. I knew right away that he was gone.”

My Biggest Fear

The next day, Beckie Nelson sat in the middle of her bed with a laptop, reading the scores of reader comments on a NorthEscambia.com story about Travis Nelson’s death.

“He really was our hero,” she said, clutching a 5×7 photo of her son.

“I didn’t think I could see past that day. I felt like it would always be that day. I didn’t imagine that I could ever talk about it,” she said. “But I can, and it has to do with the support groups, the military support groups, and the community support.”

She was remarkably strong as she talked about the heart wrenching pain of that day.

But during our interview, her voice broke.

“My biggest fear,” she said before pausing. “My biggest fear was that Travis would be forgotten. I was scared I was going to forget.”

A Fallen Marine Returns.

LCpl. Travis M. Nelson was never forgotten.

The rain poured down at Pensacola Naval Air Station August 24, 2011, as Nelson’s body arrived on the final leg of his journey home.

Outside the main gate of Pensacola NAS, people gathered to pay their respects to the young soldier. The rain did not send them running; they stood silently — many holding American flags — as the hearse carrying an American hero departed on a 55-mile journey to Atmore.

Along the way, some of Pensacola’s busiest roadways came to a complete standstill as the motorcade passed. Many motorists stood outside their vehicles and paid their respects.

In Walnut Hill, just a few miles from Nelson’s boyhood home in Bratt, the motorcade slowed as it approached Ernest Ward Middle School. Nelson was a Golden Eagle, attending Ernest Ward in the sixth and seventh grades.

Hundreds of Ernest Ward Middle School students and teachers dressed in red, white and blue lined Highway 97, American flags in hand, waiting for the arrival of the motorcade.

Several of Nelson’s middle school teachers were among the crowd that suddenly grew silent as the first sirens could be heard. As the procession passed, the students stood with their hands over their hearts, waving Old Glory. The thunder of 127 Patriot Guard motorcycle riders vibrated the ground and echoed across the country fields near the school.

Six Florida Highway Patrol trooper vehicles led the hearse past the school. Many students and teachers broke down in tears at the sight of a flag draped coffin. Others cried as they made eye contact with Nelson’s parents and their daughter  — who was a sixth grader at Ernest Ward at the time.

“I look back at those pictures now,” Beckie Nelson said. “Those pictures from the middle school. It meant so much. Those kids are now fathers, mothers, some are now serving in the military.”

My Travis.

“Travis knew at nine years old that nothing was going to hold him back. That was his heart’s desire,” Beckie Nelson said 10 years later. “That’s what he wanted to do with his life.”

“God had a greater plan for my Travis.”

Above: NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.