Tonight we gather to remember the life of a Marine who recently died in Afghanistan. The remains of Lance Corporal Nickolas A. Daniels are being returned home this week to Illinois and to the family and friends who will mourn for him forever.
Lance Corporal Nickolas A. Daniels
Nickolas A. Daniels was from Elmwood Park, Illinois. Nick was the oldest of four children. He excelled in sports, especially football. He played linebacker and made All-Conference his senior year, before graduating from St. Patrick high school.
The Chicago Tribune news site states:
Daniels graduated from St. Patrick High School on Chicago's Northwest Side in 2004. He was a standout linebacker for the football team, said Dan Galante, his former coach. He called Daniels an impact player who lived and breathed football.
"That was kind of infectious to coaches and players to be around," Galante recalled.
Four years after his graduation, Daniels missed being close to the sport he loved, so he returned in 2008 and 2009 to help coach the school's freshman team, Galante said.
Those freshmen he coached are now upperclassmen and were hit hard by the news. Many of them went to school Monday wearing ties — not part of their normal attire — as a way to honor Daniels' memory, Galante said.
Daniels enlisted in the Marine Corps in January of 2010. He reported for training September 3rd and left for his first tour of duty in Afghanistan 16 days later. He was a combat engineer trained in bomb disposal, and was assigned to 3rd Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, California.
The local ABC station,
WLS-TV, talked with family and friends about the loss of Nick Daniels:
Lonny Daniels says his big brother was always up for a challenge and loved competition. Before enlisting, he coached football at his alma mater, Saint Patrick High School on the Northwest Side. Lonny says he will always remember Nick as cool guy who watched out for his younger siblings.
"I always aspired to be like him. He was always fast, athletic, the girls loved him," Lonny Daniels said. "He's really funny, probably one of the funniest guys. He had a really good attitude with everybody. Everybody loved him."
He told his brothers while he was up for the challenge, he didn't have plans of making a career out of the military. Lonny Daniels says his older brother wanted to become a police officer.
Lance Corporal Nickolas A. Daniels was on his first combat deployment when he died November 5th while conducting combat operations in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. He was 25 years old.
According to
the Chicago Tribune Nick’s sister, Kati, said:
"I just didn't believe it because he was only there for a month and a half and he just got an award for digging up a bomb, and then this happened," she said. "And I didn't want to believe it when (the Marines) came to our house."
Daniels had always wanted to be a Marine and "just wanted everyone to have fun," his sister said.
He "just loved making everyone laugh," she said. "He was a great guy.
He told his mother the night before he left on a train, for his deployment to Afghanistan, that he planned to marry his girlfriend when he came back.
Nick Daniels is survived by his parents, Greg and Debi, two brothers, a sister, and his fiancée, Katie O'Neill. Funeral arrangements are still in the planning stages, but will be attended by the
Patriot Guard Riders.
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Helping our troops:
If you wish to assist our military and their families, consider contributing to Fisher House. Donating to Netroots for the Troops provides care packages that make a real difference in a military person's life. To assist the animal companions of our deployed military, information is available here. Also, you could visit:
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About the IGTNT series:
”I Got the News Today” is a diary series intended to honor, respect, and remind us of the sacrifice of our US troops. Click here to see the series, which was begun by i dunno, and is maintained by Sandy on Signal, Monkeybiz, Noweasels, Blue Jersey Mom, Chacounne, Twilight Falling, Joyful, SisTwo, Spam Nunn, True Blue Majority, CalNM, Wide Awake in Kentucky, Maggie Jean, Jax Dem, Kestrel 9000, & TheFatLadySings. These diaries are heartbreaking to write, but show our community’s respect for those who have died.
Fallen service members whose names have been released by the US Department of Defense will usually be diarized two days after the official announcement on the DoD website. This allows the IGTNT team to cover each person more fully, but still in a timely manner.
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Please bear in mind that these diaries are read by friends and family of the service members mentioned here. May all of our remembrances be full of compassion rather than politics.