Warren veteran born into military household
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WARREN -- Born into a military household, it made sense to Jerrald Nahm that he, too, would serve in the armed forces.
“My dad was in the United States Air Force. He was stationed in Columbus. (Lockbourne Air Force Base, which became Rickenbacker Air Force Base and is now a national guard installation). I was born at St. Ann's Maternity Hospital in 1961," Nahm said.
Growing up on the East Side of Youngstown, he attended North High School and completed his G.E.D. while he was in the military. Nahm’s first job was working at an Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips restaurant. He also worked at Truck World.
"I decided I wanted to have training for a better job,” he said.
So, he signed up for the military.
When Nahm joined the service in 1980, he went into a different branch than his father.
"I joined the United States Army. I was 19, almost 20 years old," he said.
Basic training took him to Fort Benning in Georgia. It was his first time flying in an airplane.
"Throughout my military career, I flew commercial. I never flew on a military plane,” Nahm said.
He was used to the comforts of air travel rather than flying in a military transport plane.
Although the country was in peacetime, Nahm was trained to be a combat soldier.
After basic, he went to Germany for an overseas assignment.
"I landed in Bavaria in the winter. The base was Aschaffenburg,” Nahm said.
He was at that post for 18 months. As an infantry soldier, Nahm recalled playing in the snow.
“I thought, what have I got myself into?” he said.
He did remember picturesque towns and purchasing a traditional beer stein while he was there. He returned stateside after his 18-month tour of duty was completed.
"I went to Fort Hood in Killeen Texas for a year-and-a-half,” Nahm said.
His next post was to return to Germany.
"I learned all the jobs on a Bradley fighting vehicle. I was a driver first, gunner and commander," Nahm said.
The Bradley holds 13 people and is a medium armored transport that provides coverage from an attack. It is not a tank. Nahm said the training is uniquely American.
"That is what we do. Everyone knows everyone else's job. We know how to shoot every weapon in that vehicle," he said.
He learned to fire five different guns and throw grenades.
"I also learned about Claymore Mines," said Nahm.
It is a directional anti-personnel mine.
Nahm said that when they trained for combat, they slept in tents or in open ground. His childhood as a Boy Scout helped him adapt to his army experience.
However, he did find one aspect of military life not to his liking.
"I didn't like running at 5 a.m., especially in the snow. Sometimes, we had to run in full gear. You had to learn to run with a weapon, your backpack," Nahm said.
As a combat soldier, he had readiness drills. Nahm said in that job, you had to learn to handle a stressful life.
“We'd have alerts to get up in the morning. Pack the vehicles up. Go out to the zone for several hours. Then, come back. By the time I got back, it was like one o'clock and they called us back in to do the same thing again. I got an hour of sleep and did it all over again," Nahm said.
Occasionally, there was the potential for a real threat, not just a practice. On his second deployment to Germany, he experienced such an incident.
"We sat in a zone where everybody had to get their vehicles ready to deploy. We sat there for many hours. Khadafi in Libya or somebody was threatening to do something,” he said. "Luckily, we didn't have to deploy, but we sat there and we were ready."
After 7.5 years in the military, he left the service.
He worked private security and then drove local and long haul truck routes for 25 years. "I just retired in September of this year," he said.
Nahm is glad that he served his country and is proud of his service.
"I learned a lot. I think joining the military helped me grow up and become a man,” he said.