Utahn dies in fall from tower in Iraq

BOUNTIFUL — "From there it is smooth sailing to the house. All things considered, life is good and grand to all that walk in the light. The light is good in the way of the Spirit, and the strength of the Lord is on your side."

Ellis H. Nelson sat in his living room, reading aloud the last e-mail he ever received from his son, Army Spc. Lex S. Nelson.

The 21-year-old soldier died Monday in a fall from a guard tower at the base where he was stationed in Tikrit, Iraq.

"Smooth sailing" referred to how things were going to go soon. Lex had expected to be on a convoy out of Iraq on Dec. 29, about a year after he had deployed to the Middle East. He would fly to the United States on Jan. 2 and expected to be on leave back in the family home around the middle of that month.

The electronic note had begun with a snippet of a song and continued, "I'm coming home." In the e-mail Lex talked about how much he missed home and family and discussed his spiritual feelings.

Now his youngest brother, Obed, sat sadly in a green camouflage jumpsuit, listening while his father and aunt reminisced about Lex. The aunt, Maxine Hepworth-Taylor, is from Wyoming. She's staying with her brother Ellis while she is on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, working in the Church Office Building.

They were a large family, with Lex the eighth of 15 children. Their first initials ran most of the length of the alphabet, ending with Obed.

Lex's mother, stepmother and a baby brother are buried in Auburn, in Wyoming's Star Valley. There, he will be buried beside family members, although the date is not certain. The Pentagon hasn't yet said when his body will be returned.

"Our plans are to hold a funeral here, and then he'll be buried in Auburn," his dad said.

Also uncertain is how Lex fell from the guard tower where he worked as a communications specialist. "We don't have the details yet," Nelson said.

Officers say more information will be coming.

Born in Afton, Wyo., Lex first lived on a farm in Star Valley. Then the family moved to Utah, where his father works as a teacher at Bonneville Junior High in Holladay.

"As a Boy Scout, he liked camping and all of those things . . . and we did a lot of that," Nelson said.

"And a lot of hiking, too," Hepworth-Taylor added.

A few months after graduation, Lex joined the Army.