[Tommi]

Originally Posted by EntycingFemme

i light a candle tonight for US Airforce Airman Nick Alden.
He died a hero- please read the story below!

i am heartbroken for His family, His wife and children.
He was my son's best friend- had been since middle school.
if they all weren't at my house, they were at Nicks.
i can still hear the boys upstairs laughing.. playing video games till all hours-
still see them each year as they left for the prom- the whole gang of em.
He and my son went through 4 yrs of Air Force JROTC in school-
He was such a good kid, and i am SO very proud of the man He became.
i love you Nick... you will be so very missed.

please my Planet family.... keep His family in your prayers.
my family thanks you.

Anderson airman killed in alleged terrorist attack in Germany
Kirk Brown
Anderson Independent Mail
Published: Thursday, March 3, 2011 at 5:45 p.m.


IVA, SC. — Cathy Garner was worried that her son Nick Alden would be in danger in Afghanistan.
Cathy Garner holds an image of her son Nick Alden, 24, dressed in uniform with the U.S. Air Force at her home in Iva. U.S. airman Alden of Williamston was shot charging a gunman who shot the driver of a bus. German police arrested a 21-year old ethnic Albanian from Kosovo identified as Arid Uka, reported to have acted alone in a case being investigated as terrorism.

Anderson Independent Mail

Nick Alden. Alden, a U.S. Air Force airman, didn't make it to Afghanistan. He died Wednesday when a gunman whom authorities are describing as an Islamic extremist began shooting on a bus at an airport at Frankfurt, Germany. Alden was 24.

Garner got the news in a telephone call from her ex-husband, who told her that their youngest son charged the gunman after seeing him fatally shoot the bus driver. At least 10 airmen dressed in civilian clothes were on the bus at the time of the shooting, according to media reports.

“I don't know all of the details, but apparently he was instrumental in keeping the other people on the bus safe,” said Garner, who teaches English at Starr-Iva Middle School.

Besides his parents, two older brothers and a younger sister, Alden is survived by his widow, Trish, and their 3-year-old daughter, Lilly, and 1-year-old son, William.

Alden and his wife met while they were working at the Walmart store on Liberty Highway in Anderson.

“I know it sounds like a cliché, but they were meant to be together,” Garner said. “She is a wonderful woman.”

Garner has just moved to Iva and was unpacking when she learned of her son's death. She paced around unpacked boxes much of Thursday, struggling with her emotions.

“The tears come when they come,” she told one of her sons during a phone call. “It is still surreal to me.”

Alden graduated from Palmetto High School in Williamston before enlisting in the Air Force