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Councilman Nelson deploys for Afghanistan
By Elizabeth Knighten, eknighten@acnpapers.com
City Council member Tim Nelson will deploy on Nov. 1 along with the 980th Engineer Battalion.
Nelson announced Tuesday that he will be headed to Afghanistan said that he knew it was part of his job with the United States Army Reserve to be sent anywhere at anytime.
"I was deployed in 2003 through 2004 to Iraq--I was there during the initial invasion," Nelson said, "so I understand that's part of what I do."
"It was a bit of a surprise considering I'm pretty close to retirement at this point, but when they activate or mobilize a group of soldiers, it doesn't matter where you're at," Nelson said. "The army looks at retirement as a privilege, not a right, so I'll just have to do that when I get back."
Nelson, who is a captain in the reserve for 22 years.
"I'm blessed that I have had 22 years of great service," Nelson said, "but I'm at a point now in my career and in my life that after that much time, I'm looking forward to spending time with my family."
For now, Nelson said, he will go overseas for nine months, but that time could fluctuate.
"For planning purposes, we're planning for nine months that's a typical rotation--it used to be a year-- but right now we're going through a transitionary period from 12-nine months," Nelson said. "It could be somewhere in between ... part of it depends when I land in Afghanistan on how long this deployment will be."
The city council will continue to run without Nelson, but he said after three unattended meetings it is up to the council to decide whether or not to take action in replacing him.
"It's really a choice that they are going to need to make I will miss the first two meetings in November ... I will miss the meeting in December," Nelson said. "So either that second meeting in December or that first meeting in January, they'll have a decision to make, or take no action at all."
Nelson said if the council decides not to bring the issue up for discussion, then no action will be taken.
Nelson currently serves at the Assistant Operations Officer for his unit. Nelson said he and his unit will work on building structures and securing safe roadways.
"On this particular mission we'll focus on building airfields, small bridges, structures. Things like medical clinics, school houses--those are the types of things we'll be doing within the communities within Afghanistan," Nelson said. "Within the fort operating bases: a lot of security-type missions, making sure that our post is secure ...we also have a route clearance mission, and that's basically to make sure that the roads are secure from improvised explosive devises."
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