‘It took me all over the world’: Perry vet can’t imagine life without the military
Vietnam Veteran Norm Nelson poses for a portrait outside his home on Friday, May 8, 2020, in Perry, Utah. Nelson served in the Air Force and did four separate tours in Vietnam.
Vietnam Veteran Norm Nelson poses for a portrait outside his home on Friday, May 8, 2020, in Perry, Utah. Nelson served in the Air Force and did four separate tours in Vietnam.
Vietnam Veteran Norm Nelson poses for a portrait outside his home on Friday, May 8, 2020, in Perry, Utah. Nelson served in the Air Force and did four separate tours in Vietnam.
Vietnam Veteran Norm Nelson poses for a portrait outside his home on Friday, May 8, 2020, in Perry, Utah. Nelson served in the Air Force and did four separate tours in Vietnam.
Vietnam Veteran Norm Nelson poses for a portrait outside his home on Friday, May 8, 2020, in Perry, Utah. Nelson served in the Air Force and did four separate tours in Vietnam.
PERRY — Like many veterans from his generation, Norm Nelson can’t quite imagine what his life would have been like if not for the military.
The 79-year-old Perry resident’s introduction to the armed services began with his father, who served in World War II. Following in his dad’s footsteps, Nelson enlisted as a young Airman Basic in September 1956, while he was still attending high school.
When he joined active-duty service, he worked as an ammo troop and served in a variety of locations. Early in his career he was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base and worked on a team that tested munitions systems during the early 1960s. He was part of the testing of the Air Force’s AIR-2A “GENIE” munitions system, designed for nuclear warheads. During this time, Nelson was also a member of the Air Force Honor Guard and his team participated in the funeral of President John F. Kennedy after he was assassinated in 1963.
Nelson soon found himself deployed to Vietnam, during the height of the conflict there. He served four tours in the region, spending a total of 38 months fighting in America’s second-longest war. During his Vietnam stint, Nelson first worked with B-52s. He then worked on prop aircraft at Nakhon Phanom Air Base — planes that eventually took part in the bombing of the Ho Chi Minh trail.
Nelson also worked as support for helicopter rescue of downed pilots, and he spent six months teaching English with the English Language Institute in Saigon.
Aside from Vietnam, Nelson said his 22-year tenure in the Air Force took him all over the globe — Texas, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Hawaii, Italy, Korea, Japan, Thailand and Taiwan. He retired from service in 1978. His military training allowed him to secure jobs at Thiokol (which was succeeded by Orbital ATK in 2007 and later merged with Northrop Grumman) and Hill Air Force Base.
Nelson is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post 1965 in Brigham City and has served as the state commander of the Utah VFW. Today he lives in Perry with his wife of more than 50 years, Willeta “Willy” Nelson. Though it’s currently closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nelson also volunteers as a tour guide at Hill Aerospace Museum in Roy.
“The military, it took me all over the world,” Nelson said. “It’s allowed me to live a pretty good life and I can’t really imagine my life without it. It really gave me an appreciation for the flag. When you go to a country and see kids six, seven, eight years old struggling to eat, to find clothes — you realize how good we have it in this country.”
Nelson has also spent a large chunk of his military afterlife helping his fellow veterans. He was an integral part of the team that got Willard resident Roy Torgeson the Purple Heart medal he’d been waiting to receive for some 60 years.
Torgeson, an Army veteran, suffered severe shrapnel wounds to his leg during a firefight in the Korean War. The injury left him disabled, but a fire at the National Personnel Records Office — along with what essentially amounted to a clerical error — kept Torgeson from receiving the Purple Heart until about five years ago.
But with help from Nelson, the Top of Utah chapter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, and Utah Rep. Rob Bishop’s office, Torgeson’s military record was clarified, and in September 2014 the Army gave the veteran the oldest military award still given to U.S. military members.
“He was a veteran and he needed help,” Nelson said. “When you serve in the military, you develop a bond unlike any other. It’s something that stays with you your whole life.”
Ogden resident Terry Schow, a fellow Vietnam veteran and former director of the Utah Department of Veterans Affairs has known Nelson for years and said he’s seen the veteran’s ethic firsthand.
“Norm has done countless military funeral honors, Eagle Scout court of honors, flag ceremonies, etc.” Schow said. “He’s a great veteran and an even greater man.”