Audio Interviews and Transcripts

Interview with Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Nelden
by Andrew Nelden

Below is the interview Andrew conducted with his father, Jeffrey Nelden. His father’s military career helped to inspire Andrew to choose to pursue a career as an Army Officer. You can read a part of the interview below in the transcript typed out by the student or listen to the full interview in the audio player below.


From 59:45 to 1:06:31

Nelden: What was it like to stand on the border of Iran?

LTC Nelden: It was pretty interesting. I did it a couple of time. It was us on this side and them in their towers. They all know that you are there. You just kind of stare at each other. It’s almost like the DMZ in [South] Korea. I’m on this side looking at North Korea on that side. Both of you have binoculars looking at each other. It’s just like a show of force type of thing. But it was interesting just to say that I have been on every border of Iraq and I’ve been all over Afghanistan. I’ve traveled everywhere. It’s pretty neat. I’ve got some amazing pictures.

Nelden: What’s it like to know that “I’ve done stuff”? The whole I have been there, got the t shirt?

LTC Nelden: Yes, because I’ve never done anything I thought wasn’t worthwhile. People can argue about the merits of Iraq and Afghanistan. At no time did I ever think what I was doing was worthless, it was always helping somebody, moving the rock a little further down the road. So, it always felt worthwhile. I never thought that this is dumb and why am I here. That has made it pleasurable. Wherever you go you try to make things better. A new system, helping somebody out, make them a little bit smarter, that’s really where the reward comes in. With a career, I’ve raised two good boys. Got some good values. I would never, ever take away my experience in the military. If you stick with it long enough, you get a nice pension at the end. You make decent money, there’s nothing we didn’t do that we didn’t want to do. Yes, your family suffers. You’re gone a lot, I wasn’t at a lot of games during high school but it’s a price to pay. I don’t regret it at all.

Nelden: What does it feel like that you’ve contributed to history?

LTC Nelden: I don’t think I’m there yet. I haven’t been retired an entire year yet. I’m like Holy Crap, I just spent 23 years in the military and now I have a different life afterwards. I don’t think it has sunk it yet. It’s more like, Wow, I’m not in the military anymore. I don’t have to do certain things that I had to before. But, where did the 23 years go? Holy crap, that went by fast. Am I a part of history? Yes. Will I be noted in the history book? No. But, I think that everything I did, did make a difference. And who knows? Maybe my tiny, little part will mean something bigger. But, sometimes I still struggle with the fact that I am retired. I’m not completely comfortable with it yet. That’s why I work on post. I got a job working with Soldiers. I know, it’s what I do. It’s all about the Soldier. And that will probably never leave, because that’s just what I know. I hope that history shows that all of our efforts went the right way. And that our objectives were accomplished, but we will see.

Nelden: This question is for me, would you do it all over again? Would you change anything? What should I take with me during my career in the Army?

LTC Nelden: I would say as a 2LT [Second Lieutenant], I would trust my gut more. Because you are new, your PSG has 10, 15 years in, you are less apt to say, Hey, SFC that doesn’t make sense. You are smarter and more knowledgeable that you think. I would go back and say, No, this doesn’t make sense. We are going to do something else. Granted you are going to listen to them 90% of the time, but If your gut is telling you this doesn’t sound right, stick with it. Figure it out, don’t just roll over. Always do your best. You’re going to have bosses that you like, some you don’t like. You will always take something away [from them] that will improve you. Either don’t do that or do more of that. You can’t judge the Army on one tour. I see that a lot with junior officers. “This is my second duty assignment. My boss sucks and this job sucks.” You are judging that on the here and now. How many places have you been? How many people have you worked for? There’s more to the Army than that. You need to find that one leader. The one you love and learn a ton from. That’s what you look for. That’s what you want to emulate down the road. You gotta give it a chance. You can’t just pick one duty assignment and say that this sucks.