Soldier comes home

Pfc. Nathaniel Given, the Dickinson kid with a passion for four-wheel-drive trucks and a desire to become a cop, returned home Thursday. With the pomp of a hero’s welcome, his casket was removed from the cargo hold of Continental Flight 177 at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Given, 21, was killed when a roadside bomb exploded while his platoon was on a foot patrol in Baghdad two days after Christmas.

Scott Given rode in the hearse that picked up his son.

“He was such a good, good kid,” Given said Wednesday night after being told when his son’s body would return to Texas. “I’m just glad he will finally be coming home.”

A pair of water cannons created an arch over the Continental Airlines jet as it arrived at Gate C-29 at the airport. As his family stood nearby, an honor guard of three soldiers from the U.S. Army removed Given’s flag-draped casket from the plane.

The trip back was joined by an escort from a motorcycle group calling itself the Patriot Guard Riders, which provides escorts for fallen soldiers across the country.

As the procession pulled into the Texas City funeral home Thursday night, Renee Owens waited by the side of the road with her American and Marine Corps flags.

“These are usually in my front yard,” an emotional Owens said. Her nephew, Pfc. Chase Edwards, a Marine from Louisiana, was killed April 6 in Iraq by an improvised explosive device while he was in a Humvee in the Anbar province in Iraq.

“I had to be here because so many people lined the roads between Houston and Lake Charles when they took my nephew home,” a tearful Owens said. “You tell the parents my heart and prayers go out to them.”

Remembrances of Nathan Given could be found on his MySpace.com Web page, where above Christmas wishes from his girlfriend were notes of condolences from friends and family.

“Nathan, I will forever keep you in my heart. I love you, man, and I will never forget all the childhood memories we spent together,” one posting reads. “I know you are in a better place now and that God will take care of you.”

Just above that message a Web-generated clock was still eerily counting down the days until Given was supposed to have come home from Iraq, or “the sandbox” as he had dubbed the war zone.

He also posted a clock that counted the days and hours since he deployed to the Iraqi war zone.

All across the Web, notes in memory of Given could be found. His girlfriend, Jessica Galloway, posted a small “I miss you so much” picture featuring a heart and a set of dog tags.

Given is the fifth Galveston County resident to be killed in Iraq since the start of the war in 2003. His body returned on a day that saw two car bomb attacks at a Baghdad fuel station, killing 13 people and wounding 25 others.

Funeral services for Given are scheduled for Saturday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Nathaniel Given Funeral Services

When: Visitation 1 p.m. Saturday; funeral service 2 p.m. Saturday; private burial at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Dickinson

Where: Carnes Funeral Home, 3301 Interstate 45 North in Texas City.

Donations: Can be made in Nathan Given’s name to the Shriners Burns Hospital For Children in Galveston.

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County’s Fallen

As of Sunday, more than 3,000 members of the U.S. military had died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003. Five of them were from Galveston County.

• Sgt. Phillip A. Jordan, 43, League City, Marines, killed March 2003

• Pfc. Ray Joseph Hutchison, 20, League City, Army, killed December 2003

• Cpl. Wesley J. Canning, 21, Friendswood, Marines, killed November 2004

• Spc. Barry Meza, 23, League City, Army, killed December 2004

• Pfc. Nathaniel Given, 21, Dickinson, Army, killed December 2006

Source: Department of Defense, Daily News files