FRANKLIN, OH, USA
U.S. Army
SPC, COMPANY B, 1ST BATTALION, 506TH INFANTRY, (2MEF), FORT CARSON, CO
AL KHALIDIYAH, IRAQ 05/08/2005
Nicolas Edward Messmer of Gahanna, Franklin County, Ohio, did not know what he wanted to be when he grew up. His fiancé, Mary Murphy, a student at Ohio State University, said, “He wanted to be a firefighter, he wanted to be a cop, he wanted to own his own lawn-care service. He wanted to be so many things.”
Instead he enlisted in the Army after graduating from Gahanna’s Lincoln High School in 2003. After boot camp he went to infantry school and airborne school. He was assigned to B Company, 1st Battalion, 506 Infantry Regiment (Air Assault), 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Camp Greaves, Korea, when he was deployed to Iraq. Ms. Murphy said he was always thinking of the future. But even then he could not make up his mind. When they talked, sometimes he wanted to buy a truck, sometimes a motorcycle.
Specialist Messmer’s enlistment in the Army was to have ended on Sept. 18, 2006. “We had so many plans,” Ms. Murphy said.
They last talked on Saturday, May 7. “He was excited. He had been on guard duty in a tower, but he was excited because he was going to be doing house raids.”
But the day after their last conversation, Specialist Messmer was killed on Sunday, May 8, 2005 at Khalidiyah, near Sumarra, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device struck the vehicle in which he and others were riding and exploded, killing him and wounding one other Soldier. He was only 20 years old. His of duty in Iraq was to have ended on July 24, his twenty-first birthday.
“He was very brave. I am very proud of him. His family loved him. We all did,” Murphy said.
Nick was preceded in death by his grandfather, John F. Messmer, and his uncle, Stephan A. Messmer. He is survived by his parents, Richard E. and Shirley Messmer; brothers, Richard A., Joseph M., Dustin M., and Zachary J. Messmer; his grandparents, Ruth Ann Messmer, Martha (Clarence) Lacey, and Donald Divers; and his fiance, Mary Murphy.
His remains were buried at St. Joseph Cemetery in Lockbourne, Ohio.