Army Sgt. Kenneth R. Nichols Jr.

Remember Our Heroes

Army Sgt. Kenneth R. Nichols Jr., 28, of Chrisman, Ill.

Sgt. Nichols was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.; died Dec. 1, 2009 in Kunar province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit using small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire.

Fort Carson solider killed in Afghanistan
The Associated Press

FORT CARSON, Colo. — A Fort Carson soldier killed in Afghanistan’s Kunar province was looking forward to coming home for Christmas during a two-week break from the battlefield this month, family members said.

Twenty-eight-year-old Sgt. Kenneth R. Nichols Jr., who grew up in Chrisman, Ill., was killed Tuesday when his unit was attacked by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, the Department of Defense said Friday.

He is survived by his wife and four children, including a 9-month-old daughter, Pailynn.

Nichols was assigned in Fort Carson’s 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.

“He always smiled. He loved life, he was happy, and he made everyone around him want to be a better person,” his widow, Lexi Nichols, told The Gazette in Colorado Springs.

The four-year Army veteran had served a tour in Iraq, from October 2006 to December 2007.

He loved playing pranks, riding his Harley Davidson and hanging out in a shed he built behind his Colorado Springs home.

While deployed, Nichols chatted on the computer with his wife for 5 or 10 minutes a day. He had been looking forward to seeing his children during a two-week break that was to have started Dec. 16.

His family said he would be buried in the Danville National Cemetery in Illinois.

Army Sgt. Kenneth R. Nichols Jr. was killed in action on 12/01/09.