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November 1, 2005 Moscow-Pullman Daily News www.DNews.com
More Than A Number
By Kate Baldwin
Daily News staff writer
A son of Pine City died Saturday while serving in Afghanistan. Those who
knew him say he died because he gave more than was asked of him — the
ideal that defined his life.
Staff sergeant Travis Wayne Nixon, 24, was nearing the end of his third
overseas deployment with the United States Army when an enemy ambush
surprised his squad while on patrol near Lwara on the Pakistani border. “My understanding is that he was squad leader; he died making sure his
squad got to safety in an ambush,” said Frank Watson, Nixon’s high
school football coach and teacher. “I was not surprised Travis would do
that. If his job was to lead his men, he would lead his men the best way
he knew how.”
His mother, Maggie Nixon, told his former hometown newspaper, The
Community Current, that he was the only casualty. “He alerted his squad
of nine men of the danger and no one else was hurt.”
Dan Harwood, of nearby St. John, considered Nixon to be a second son
after watching him grow up as the best friend of his own son Randy. “One
thing that everyone needs to know about Travis, he firmly believed in
our country and he believed in what he was doing in Afghanistan.” “One of the things that was real evident, and this came from his mom,
was that he wanted to be able to help the people of Afghanistan to be
free, to be independent, and to not be bullied,” Harwood said. The 1999 graduate of St. John-Endicott High School enlisted the summer
before his senior year of high school. He entered the service after
graduation.
“You aimed Travis,” Watson said. “He would walk around and you could
tell he was a little coiled spring but it wasn’t all physical. He would
attack music the way he did football, the way he did being a soldier.” Nixon had a passion for music and played the alto sax through his years
in middle school and high school.
Billy Ray, Jr. was Nixon’s band instructor, and his junior high baseball
and football coach. He remembered that Nixon would trudge in at 7:30 or
7:45 in the morning to practice with the high school jazz band because
it was “one of his biggest loves.”
“He was very passionate about music,” said Ray, who remembered Nixon’s
fondness for big band and talking with him about Benny Goodman and Tommy
Dorsey.
He said plans are forming to create a scholarship for St. John-Endicott
students pursuing education in music, “that his name, his love, will
have a part of.” Ray shared his favorite story about Nixon that happened
after the last band concert his senior year.
“Traditionally I say goodbye to the audience and thank you for coming, I
stick around to put stuff away, until 11 o’clock or however long it
takes,” Ray said. As he was stacking chairs, he heard footsteps coming
up behind him. He turned around and found Nixon.
“He said, ‘Well you can’t put all this stuff away yourself,’” Ray said.
“He always gave more than I asked for.”
“He was a good kid, one of those freckled-face kids that you wonder what
to do with sometimes ... what you don’t realize is that he figured it
out,” Watson said. “That is what teaching is about, give them enough
information for them to figure it out themselves.”
He remembered the moment Nixon decided to be a soldier. A class project
caused the students in Nixon’s 23-person graduating class to examine
possible vocations for after graduation. Watson said Nixon’s first
choice was engineer. “If you knew Travis, that would be hard to believe.” “He said, ‘Coach, what’s calculus?’” Watson said. After an explanation, Nixon went back to the drawing board. “He was 16 years old when he decided to be a soldier, and he was good at
it,” Watson said.
Sometimes in life there are turning points, Watson said. Sometimes
they’re sharp and sometimes they’re not. “When he got to be mature
enough to realize he wasn’t going anywhere in advanced math, he found
something he could be successful at.”
Watson explained how Nixon became a son of the rural community by
comparing it to the time Watson first brought his baby granddaughter to
a basketball game. He said people held her and passed her up through the
crowd. It took him a couple years to figure out and realize that “They
did that to all new babies.” He said everybody touched and held that
baby and assumed a responsibility for its growth and development. People
still consider her one of theirs. He said when Travis Nixon moved to
town in about the sixth grade the same thing happened to him, despite
being in the sixth grade.
“People touched Travis Nixon, he became one of ours and we became
responsible for his growth and development. He grew and developed into
something to be proud of,” Watson said. “Even if you don’t give birth to
them they’re still your kids.”
“You should’ve seen his grin,” said Watson, who described Nixon as “a
little kid, a rusty-headed, freckle-faced kid, with grins way back to
his ears.
“I think just looking back, if he could do anything over again, I don’t
think he would’ve changed a thing,” Ray said.
“A lot of people are having a difficult time with it, myself included,”
Ray said. “It’s never easy to lose someone that young, that unexpected.
It’s really hard to fathom. I think a lot of the community is still
pretty numb. We’re trying to cope, to soak it in and understand, I know
there’s been many phones calls to Nick and Maggie Nixon, Travis’
parents.” The Nixons moved away from town after Travis graduated. Watson knew Nixon’s mother, Maggie, who was a bus driver for the school
district and would drive the team to games. He said he believed that
when she got the call telling her that her son was the 23rd, or whatever
number, American fatality in Afghanistan this year, she responded, “He’s
not going to be a number.”
Watson said, “That wasn’t (a number) that was killed. That was Travis
Nixon, and he was one of ours.
“He was more than a number.”
n A memorial service is scheduled to remember Travis Nixon on Sunday at
3 p.m. at the Kenova Grange in Pine City. Also on Sunday, there will be
a military service in Raleigh, N.C., where Nixon will receive the Bronze
Star and Purple Heart medals posthumously. On Thursday, a tribute to
the armed forces will be held at St. John-Endicott High School at 9:15
a.m. There will be a tribute to Nixon as part of the service. Kate Baldwin can be reached at (208) 82-5561, ext. 239, and by e-mail at
kbaldwin[at]dnews.com. |
