Archived: PRESS RELEASE: 13 November 2009

Four time author and Uncle of Aaron Thomas Nemelka to speak out against the Family's Memorial to
Slain Ft. Hood Soldier

PRESS CONFERENCE: Four time author and Uncle of Aaron Thomas Nemelka to speak out against the Family’s Memorial to Slain Ft. Hood Soldier

When: Saturday November 14, 2009, 12:00 P.M. (noon) to coincide with A.T. Nemelka’s funeral being held in West Jordan, UT at 12:00 P.M.

Where: Pioneer Park across from the LDS Mesa AZ Temple at 12:00 P.M. (noon)

I am here today to give a counter memorial to my nephew Aaron Thomas Nemelka. A memorial that I know more honestly reflects who Aaron truly was.

In so doing,

I also represent the family members of the dead United States military men and women who never receive a voice during the military memorials of their loved-ones. I am going to say what many parents would like to say, but are afraid to because of the intense pressures of the U.S. military attaché that oversees the memorial services of its fallen soldiers. They are afraid of offending their peers, the media, and the public.

The tragic death of my nephew was because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time for the wrong reason.

Aaron just graduated from High School a little over a year ago. Like most teenagers raised in the Mormon religion, it was expected of Aaron to serve an LDS mission when he turned 19 years old. More pressure was subtly applied to Aaron than normal because Aaron was his father’s last hope of having one of his sons serve his church on an LDS mission. But like his two brothers and sister before him, Aaron rejected the LDS Church and its doctrines and had no desire to serve a mission. Once he determined that he was not going to serve a mission, the pressure became even greater when he was faced with future prospects of survival and success for the rest of his life.

My son, Staff Sergeant Joshua Marc Ladenburg, who serves in the United States Army, currently in Germany, had a great influence on Aaron in joining the military. I forced my son to join the military. Joshua had no motivating patriotic duty to serve in the military. He was a confused teenager with few other options before him.

The last thing on this earth both my son and Aaron wanted to do was to serve in the military. And Aaron, who, as the few lines of real truth state in his obituary, “was a man of few words but deep feelings and a gentle disposition,” never in a million years imagined himself joining the military as he was growing up.

Like tens of thousands of young men and women, Aaron had few options available to him. Aaron is an American citizen who does not have free health care, free housing, free food, and free education. If you are a United States citizen, although you had no choice in choosing to be born, you are expected to provide these things for yourself. And with the few employment opportunities available to U.S. teenagers, the signing bonuses and benefits of military service seem very enticing.

But beyond the financial realities that young people face, Aaron also faced the pressure of a family that prided itself, not only as Americans, but as members of the LDS Church, a religion that believes it is the only true church on the face of the earth; and that a person can not receive salvation in this life or in the next unless one is a member of this church.

The patriotic and religious members of our family should have listened to what AARON WANTED instead of what THEY wanted FOR HIM.

Yes, he was a “man of few words.” And yes, he had “deep feelings.” And yes, it was his “gentle disposition” that caused him to hide is true feelings from his “patriotic” and “religious” family members.

Aaron was FORCED by family pressures to join the military. Aaron was FORCED to accept the dangers and constraints of military service not to SERVE HIS COUNTRY, but to attempt to create some value for himself when his “deep feelings” caused him to reject his family’s religion that had set expectations for him.

The truth of the matter is that Aaron was in the wrong place at the wrong time and for the wrong reason.

Family members who have lost a loved one while serving in the military are afraid to stand up to the United States government and speak out against war. They are forced to weigh the decision to speak the truth against family and peer pressure that expect their loved one to be remembered as a “hero” not a victim of circumstance.

They are afraid to speak out against religion, more especially, against a religion that has more power, money, and influence (per capita) in the United States than any other: the LDS Church.

I am not afraid.

President Barack Obama said the following words to the American people in memory of my nephew, PFC Aaron Nemelka:

“He was proudly carrying on a tradition of military service that runs deep within his family.”

Here’s an honest outline of our family’s military service: (They are listed here according to age.)

Alvin Leo Blades, drafted into the Korean War, was wounded and never served in the military again.

Michael James Nemelka, was a teenage father before he joined the military.

I [Christopher Marc Nemelka] was the only member of the family who joined without an extrinsic motive. I was the ONLY member of the Nemelka/Blades family to serve an LDS mission and serve in the military. I became a conscientious objector after a short time in Military Intelligence and asked to be released because of the hardships of military service. I received an honorable release.

Alesa Diane Nemelka Forrest, the only female service member in the family, had no other options as a teenager living in an LDS family, whose religion she rejected, which put her at odds with her father. She only served the minimum time.

Kevin Wendell Nemelka was a teenage father with few options and became a career officer in the U.S. Army. He is still in the military.

Michael Andrew Blades was a teenage father with few options and became a career officer in the Montana Army National Guard.

Joshua Marc Ladenburg was forced to serve in the military by his father, me [Christopher Marc Nemelka].

Aaron Thomas Nemelka, chose to serve after rejecting the option of serving a mission and having no other options available to please the pressures placed upon him by his family and society.

Our family is nothing like it pretends to be. It is nothing like President Barack Obama pretended it to be for the media and to cause the American people to feel sorry for our family. President Obama knows nothing about our family. Like so many Presidents before him, he was given faulty information and acted on that information.

LDS President Thomas S. Monson is scheduled to attend Aaron’s memorial service. He is going to pretend that Aaron was one of them, a faithful Latter Day Saint who died for his family, country, and God. Once again, Aaron did not believe in the LDS Church or agree with its doctrines.

Our family is like tens of thousands of other American families whose teenagers are trying to survive in a country that pretends to provide some of the greatest opportunities of success available anywhere in the world. But when, as teenagers, they look for these so-called “opportunities” all they see is the military option.

My nephew did not die FOR the United States of America, FOR his religion, or FOR his family.

He died BECAUSE of them.