PVT KENNETH A. NALLEY
501st Military Police Company
Army Pvt. Kenneth A. Nalley, Age 19, of Hamburg, Iowa
Assigned to the 501st Military Police Company, Wiesbaden, Germany
Killed in a vehicle accident in Samawah, Iraq, May 26, 2003.
IOWA SOLDIER DIES IN IRAQ
By WILLIAM PETROSKI
The Des Moines Register Staff Writer
05/29/2003
It was a year ago that Kenny Nalley, a happy kid who always had a friendly smile, was gripping his freshly minted diploma from Hamburg High School.
Now his family in the southwest Iowa town of 1,240 people is planning a funeral for the young man who danced in plays and sang in swing choir and earned the respect of his friends.
Army Pvt. Kenneth A. Nalley, 19, was killed Monday in an accident in As Samawah, Iraq, along with Staff Sgt. Brett Petriken, 30, of Michigan, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
The soldiers were escorting a convoy in a Humvee when a heavy equipment transporter crossed the median and struck their vehicle. Both soldiers were assigned to the 501st Military Police Company of Wiesbaden, Germany. The incident is under investigation, military officials said.
An Army chaplain came to Hamburg Tuesday and informed the family of Nalley's death. Word spread quickly, and by Wednesday, American flags were lowered to half-staff throughout the stunned community.
"He was really a good boy, and everybody liked him," Hamburg City Clerk Georgann Stephens said, her voice choked with emotion. "He had wanted to be a police officer, so he had gone into the service and he was just so happy because he thought he was improving his life."
His mother, Roberta Brooks, had visited the city clerk's office just last week to provide his address. Students in Hamburg had been putting together a care package with Kool-Aid and other comfort items to send to him, Stephens said.
Other survivors include his grandmother, Dee Cavner, and his brothers, Danny Osborn and Dave Osborn, all of Hamburg; and a sister, Diane Osborn of Oklahoma. His father, Sonny Nalley, preceded him in death. Funeral plans are pending, although services are expected to be at the city's elementary school gymnasium when his remains are returned home.
Nalley is the third Iowan to die in Iraq. The first was Marine Reserve Sgt. Bradley Korthaus, 28, of Davenport, who drowned March 24 as he and other combat engineers attempted to swim across the Saddam Canal to establish a defensive position at a water purification site. The second was Marine Gunnery Sgt. Jeffrey Bohr, 39, of Ossian, who was killed April 10 during a battle at a mosque in Baghdad.
Nalley had enlisted in the Army for a five-year hitch last July, just a month after graduating from high school. He was known by almost everyone in town because he had worked for almost three years at Hamburg Oil, a full-service gas station, where he pumped fuel, changed oil, fixed tires and did other chores for motorists.
Bob Cooper, 53, a mechanic at Hamburg Oil who spent 22 years in the Army before retiring, said he felt like he had lost a son when he heard Nalley had died.
Because the young man wasn't attending college, Cooper had counseled him that joining the Army and gaining some experience in the military police could give him an edge when applying for a law enforcement job.
"He didn't smoke. He didn't drink. He didn't do drugs because he wanted to be a policeman. That was his way to make sure that he didn't have any troubles, so that he could get to that position in life," Cooper said Wednesday.
Nalley had called his friends at the gas station just last Friday from Kuwait and had explained he was planning to return to Iraq. As always, he was upbeat, Cooper said.
"He talked about being shot at and how everything was going good and how he was kind of enjoying things," Cooper said.
Teri Emberton, a vocal music teacher at Hamburg High School, recalled Nalley as someone with an ever-present smile on his face.
"He loved music. He loved to perform. He was always happy and always wanting to sing and dance," she said.
Danny Osborn, 29, said his brother had moved in with him at the start of his sophomore year. Nalley was a leader, and friends tended to follow what he said or did, he said.
"He knew almost everybody here" in Hamburg, Osborn said. "If he didn't know them, they knew him. That was the way it was. He wasn't much of an athlete or anything, but he was kind of his own person. That is about all I can say about him. He was a good kid."
Army Pvt. Kenneth A. Nalley
Associated Press
(www.militarycity.com)
Army Pvt. Kenneth A.
Nalley, 19, of Hamburg, Iowa, assigned to the 501st Military Police
Company, Wiesbaden, Germany; killed in a vehicle accident in Samawah,
Iraq, May 26.
Nalley and another soldier were escorting a convoy in a Humvee when a heavy equipment transporter crossed the median and struck their vehicle.
Kenneth A. Nalley enlisted in the Army for a five-year hitch last July, just a month after graduating from high school.
He had worked at Hamburg Oil, a full-service gas station, for almost three years, pumping gas, changing oil and fixing tires.
Bob Cooper, a mechanic at Hamburg Oil who spent 22 years in the Army, said he felt like he had lost a son. Cooper had counseled Nalley that joining the Army and gaining some experience as a military policeman could give him an edge when apply for a police job.
“He didn’t smoke. He didn’t drink. He didn’t do drugs because he wanted to be a policeman,” Cooper said. “That was his way to make sure that he didn’t have any troubles, so that he could get to that position in life.”
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