Remembering Nemelka

WEST JORDAN — Guitar playing. Soccer. Ute football. Frisbee golf.

It's a list of hobbies that could be those of any young man from Utah, and the items were among the loves of Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka, 19, who was killed along with 12 others in a shooting rampage at a Texas military base Thursday.

More than a dozen friends and family members gathered outside the Nemelka home in West Jordan on Saturday as Aaron's uncle and Montana National Guard Maj. Michael Blades spoke with the media about his nephew.

"Aaron was a man of few words and tender feelings," Blades said. "He had a simple trust in God and … a tremendous love for his family and friends, and a deep sense of duty and responsibility."

That sense of duty is one that has run deeply in the Nemelka family.

"Aaron was proud to follow in the footsteps of both of his grandfathers who served, two uncles that are in the military currently and one cousin," Blades said. "He felt like it was his duty to stand with them in defense of our country."

Blades said his nephew took his military commitment very seriously and was disheartened by the political divisiveness running through the country.

"Aaron was intensely proud to serve under the leadership of the president," Blades said. "He believed we are all first and foremost Americans, not Democrats or Republicans, not white, black, brown or any other color. We're Americans."

Nemelka was scheduled for a January deployment to Afghanistan, where he would have served in an engineering company whose responsibilities include munitions disposal. He was at Fort Hood, Texas, for his final training before heading overseas.

The investigation into Thursday's shooting at Fort Hood continued Saturday as the alleged shooter, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was reported to be in stable condition at a military hospital. Hasan was shot by military police in the incident that left 12 soldiers and one civilian dead and dozens injured.

An Army spokeswoman said Saturday that Nemelka's remains, as well as those of other victims in the shooting, were at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Del., undergoing autopsies as part of the investigation. Blades was scheduled to fly to Dover and will accompany his nephew's remains back to Utah when that part of the investigation, expected to take about three days, is complete.

e-mail: araymond@desnews.com Contributing: Associated Press