Fallen Soldier: Nicholas S. Nolte

Sergeant Nicholas S. Nolte, 25, of Falls City, Neb., was assigned to the 2nd Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, II Marine Expeditionary Force at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C. While serving in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, he was providing security for a colonel, when the Humvee he and five others were traveling in drove over a roadside bomb. He sustained multiple injuries and was transferred to Germany, and then to National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Md., where he died as a result of his injuries on November 24, 2004.

Sgt. Nolte enlisted in the Marine Corps after graduating from Sacred Heart Catholic School in 1998. He was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart.

Sgt. Roderuck Shriver, who served with Sgt. Nolte for more than three years, came to his funeral. He had helped to bring Sgt. Nolte’s body home. “Bringing him home was a great honor, but it’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in the fifteen years I’ve been in the Marine Corps,” Sgt. Shriver said.

Sgt. Nolte’s daughter is a Folds of Honor Scholarship recipient.