
SIDNEY N.Y. — Gil Nieves smiled at the thought of how his big brother might have reacted.
“Isaac would have been crying if he were here seeing all these people,” Gil said Tuesday.
Instead, tears flowed from the eyes of many of the more than 300 people who attended a memorial mass for Spc. Isaac Michael Nieves. He was killed April 8 while on combat patrol in Bani Saad, Iraq.
“He was my brother and role model,” said Gil, a 19-year-old plebe at West Point. “Those memories will never fade away.”
Nieves, of Unadilla, was assigned to the 82nd Engineer Battalion, 1st Infantry Division, in Bamberg, Germany. He was supposed to be rotated...