Army Specialist Nicholas C. Mason

Remember Our Heroes

Remember Our Heroes

Army Specialist Nicholas C. Mason, 20, of King George, Virginia.

Spc. Mason died in Mosul, Iraq, when a suicide bomber entered his dining facility and detonated an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the Army National Guard's 276th Engineer Battalion, West Point, Virginia.

Spc. Mason, a 2002 graduate of King George High School, signed up for the military in 2001 while he was still in school. He attended National Guard training once a month while completing his freshman year at Virginia Tech, and planned to resume his studies after returning from Iraq in February or March.

Spc. Mason was one of two members of the Virginia Guard’s 229th Engineer Battalion killed in the Dec. 21 attack. They had deployed to Iraq last December with the 276th Engineer Battalion, based in Richmond.

Maj. Gen. Claude Williams, the Virginia Guard’s adjutant general, knelt between Mason’s flag-draped coffin and his family, and presented a Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal and the Virginia Legion of Merit.

Fellow firefighters also honored Mason, a member of the King George Volunteer Fire Department. They stood and saluted as his father received his helmet. A series of symbolic rings tolled on a silver fireman’s bell, signifying Mason’s death and that his job was complete.

Army Specialist Nicholas C. Mason was killed in action 12/21/04.