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Photo by Mick Eagleson/The Advocate
Joyce Lindsey displays her husband’s burial flag and medals.
Husband killed by Taliban in Afghanistan
Student finds opportunity in tragedy
The Advocate
MHCC student Joyce Lindsey lost her husband, Nathaniel Brad Lindsey, in 2006 when he was killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Lindsey met her husband, who everyone knew as Brad, when he was 21 and in the Navy. They were together for 17 years before he was killed. Brad got out of the Navy and had a six-year break before he went into the National Guard from 1995 until he was killed in 2006.
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“He had volunteered for the Afghanistan mission for two reasons,” Lindsey said. “One, he had one more deployment before he retired. He had 19 years of service and because his friend and commander was going over and had never been overseas, let alone in a war zone — and my husband had been in two war zones at that point so he knew what they were getting into — so he wanted to make sure the commander came home because he’s a great guy.”
“What happened, though, was the commander ended up getting promoted and never went overseas but my husband had already volunteered so he had to go. They tried to put him in a safe place by making him a radio transmission officer, but he didn’t like it because he was used to fighting on the lines and protecting his fellow soldier. And to sit there and listen to a radio where the firefights are going on and you can’t do anything about it is pretty torturous. So he kept begging to get transferred and he finally got transferred — and three days later he was killed. He was ambushed by the Taliban.”
There wasn’t a lot of information for Lindsey to get on being a war widow or books about people who are going through what she was dealing with. That is when she decided to write her own book, “When Tragedy Strikes,” which she is hoping to finish within the next two to four years as she continues on her journey.
Lindsey said, “A lot of people think that after you face a tragedy like this, that life is over. I chose to look at it as an opportunity to do something I’m passionate about and to change my life for the better. It sucked the first year but after that I really got focused and thought I really have to do something with this. It enabled me to go back to school and stay home with my daughter.
“So there’s a lot of good things that came out of this, and that’s what I try to focus on. I don’t try to focus on the fact that I lost him. I miss him every day but you can’t focus on that. You can’t focus on what you lost, you have to focus on the future. I’m in a widows group called ‘Gold Star Wives’ and I noticed that there’s not a lot of information out there for war widows, I think I found one book about a war widow.”
Marcus Laureta, Lindsey’s oldest son, followed in his father’s footsteps and went into the military when he was 17 and served a year in the Iraq war and faced combat. She said he’s been home since 2003 and is getting his life back together. Her youngest son is a broadcasting major who will graduate the same time as she will and they’re going to graduate together.
Lindsey has been a student at MHCC for three years, working toward her goal of becoming an elementary teacher.
After she graduates this year, she will be in the Eastern Oregon University elementary teaching program through MHCC. “I like the campus here. It’s close to home. I’ve been on the PSU campus but this one is a lot more personable.
“As a widow of a soldier killed in action, I get survivor benefits that are based on the number of credits I take,” Lindsey said. “I also got the Hope for Warriors Scholarship.”
“If you can make it through this, you can make it through anything,” said Lindsey.
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