http://www.nydailynews.com/01-19-2005/news/local/story/272760p-233545c.html
At least his family was supportive of him and loved him. How sad.
| New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com |
| Misfire kills proud Bronx G.I. BY NANCY DILLON DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Wednesday, January 19th, 2005 Kim Swindell's hands trembled yesterday as she read the haunting E-mail her soldier son sent from Iraq just four days before he was killed Saturday. "I'm fine over here," Sgt. Nathaniel Swindell of the South Bronx wrote from his base in Mosul. "We've just been hard-charging over here for three months. But now we have the swing of things." He bragged about completing his 100th mission: setting up a traffic control point on a busy street. And he complained about a finger injury he got from a battering ram used in door-to-door searches. "He was really proud to be doing what he was doing," Kim Swindell, 41, said through tears. Nathaniel Swindell, 24, was serving with the Stryker Brigade of Fort Lewis, Wash., when a firearm belonging to an Iraqi National Guardsman accidentally misfired into his back. The bullet slipped beneath Swindell's protective armor and killed him quickly within the confines of his base, family members said. "We didn't really want him to go to Iraq. But we didn't voice our opinion. And every single day we were always worried," said his dad, Vernon Swindell, 41, adding that he was "satisfied" with the Army's explanation of his son's death. "I'm proud he did whatever he wanted to do," the father of four said before breaking down. "He did it happily." Nathaniel Swindell graduated in 2000 from Samuel Gompers Vocational and Technical School in the Bronx and joined the Army as a way to see the world and find his path, his parents said. Before shipping out to Iraq for the first time in October, he treated his family to a huge summer barbecue of steak, ribs and shrimp at his great-grandmother's house on Long Island. He returned to Fort Lewis in August and married his wife, Sabrina. Hopeful about starting a family one day, Swindell often filled his E-mails with stories about Iraqi children. He even asked his mom to replace the personal items she was sending in care packages with hard candies he could hand out to the kids. "The children really touched his heart," Kim Swindell said. "He said a pat on the head and a piece of candy really calmed the children down during searches." His parents and siblings, who are Jehovah's Witnesses, plan to hold a funeral early next week. They are expecting his body back this week. "He was always there for me," said younger sister Jasmyn Swindell, 22. "He was a good big brother." |
