Nathan Mansfield Sessions, LCDR/USN/RET passed peacefully in his sleep on 26 March 2013. He was born in Paso Robles, California to Franklin and Caroline (Laws) Sessions. He led an exciting younger life as his father worked on the railroad and Nathan and his family literally lived in a railroad boxcar part of the year. He spent school time with his grandparents in Sutter Creek California and often told stories of catching frogs in their pond and sleeping on the porch when the honeysuckle was in bloom. The family lived in several locations as the railroad moved Frank around. One of his favorites was in Sudden California during WWII when they often lived off whatever Frank could shoot with his trusty rifle and the albacore from the beach. He told of getting candy bars thrown from the soldiers as they passed by on the troop trains. He perfected the pitiful urchin look!!!
The family moved to Oregon after Frank experienced the great fishing on a scouting trip and Nathan went to schools there with his brother Clinton and sister Beth. Nathan graduated from Cottage Grove High School where he loved football. He was to be inducted into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame this May.
Upon graduation he enlisted in the Navy and trained as a Hospital Corpsman, serving in several duty stations with the Maine Corps ( those few good men the Marines refer to are Navy Corpsmen) at Camp Pendleton, Okinawa, and his often related trip to North Borneo. After reaching the rank of Senior Chief he was commissioned as an officer in the Medical Service Corps and shortly thereafter off to Vietnam to run an extremely forward "MILPHAP" hospital. Nathan loved to tell all the stories about how he had to filch supplies from Saigon for his hospital by means that should have landed him in Leavenworth, and we are not talking about the nice vacation spot in eastern Washington. He would tell of driving to Saigon in his trusty amped-up Dodge Power Wagon "Beverly", picking up some poor unsuspecting new soldier, and telling them to put on a helmet, a "flack Jacket" and hold on for dear life as he drove 80 MPH thru the rice paddies. Nathan's theory was that the faster you went the less chance you had of getting hit as you were all ready gone by the time anyone could raise a weapon. Their forward outpost was frequently attacked and he assiduously trained ALL of his personnel, even his medics and nurses, to man the defenses. His best pupil was his pediatrician who became Nathan's best 50 Cal gunner. After being erroneously declared dead a couple of times in the "Stars and Stripes" he informed his parents he was not dead until he informed them so, not to believe anything else. Although he loved telling the amusing side of his exploits, Nathan saw serious combat and earned the Bronze Star for his heroism. To the end of his years he was not a fan of fireworks or explosions. Any such event in the middle of the night would cause him to try to run to his bunker, denting a lot of walls in the house. Fortunately he came home without any serious injuries and his sense of humor intact. His final tours of service were with Naval Hospital Oakland, Bethesda, and finally at the Naval Undersea Medical Institute in Groton Connecticut.
Nathan was married three times in his lifetime, has five living children, Hyrum, Jennifer, Angela, Shannon and Louise, 17 grandchildren and 9 great grand children. Nathan was greatly saddened to lose his sixth child, Belinda, just two years ago. He met Ronda, his third wife, at his final duty station in Groton. While the Navy promised to send both Nathan and Ronda to the same location, they assigned Nathan to Quantico and Ronda to Bremerton. Nathan decided 25 years of moving around all over the world was quite enough, so he resigned and became his physician/wife's house husband at her new duty station at Bangor. The duo attended the commissioning ceremony for the USS Ohio and then travelled across country to greet the boat on her arrival to the West Coast.
While Ronda was busy as a squadron medical officer and diving medical officer, Nathan was perfecting his Chef skills. He also managed to get both of them signed up as volunteer firefighters when neither of the engines at the station would start. He and Ronda stayed with firefighting for 20 years, Nathan advancing to Battalion Chief, and Ronda gleefully staying a firefighter so she could always drive the trucks, officers had to sit in the right seat and NOT DRIVE, intolerable. When climbing roofs and running into burning buildings was getting a bit too much for old knees, the two became tender operators, just delivering the water to the scene and operating the engines.
Nathan's new adventure in the last few years was Search and Rescue. It all started with Ronda deciding to do search dog work. He became her designated lost person for the dogs. All three of her dogs had "Gnat Finder" as part of their official AKC names because they spent their training years finding Gnat as he is affectionately known in the SAR and Firefighting worlds. When Ronda switched to a local unit, Washington Explorer Search and Rescue, he joined as a support person and has become the highly valued field chef for the unit. It has been his particular delight to feed searchers and SAR deputies all over the state of Washington.
For almost all of his adult life, Nathan also has been very involved with the Boy Scouts of America. He has been a Scout Master for troops all across the country and his last assignment was as assistant scoutmaster to Ronda when she was assigned scoutmaster in February of 2013. One of the most telling awards he has on the wall at home is" Nat Sessions, maker of Eagles and builder of men." He has kept in touch with many of his former scouts. The twin sons of one of his Eagles were just getting old enough to join the troops meeting at Camp Gnat, as his home has long been called.
Nathan was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Seabeck Ward, also formerly of the Silverdale Fourth and Second Wards, all without moving!!! He had served two missions, the latest at the Bremerton Cannery with Ronda.
Nathan loved to fish and go on hunting trips, where he let Ronda do the hunting and worked hard on his culinary skills. He was also famous for his annual Christmas Stories. Not your usual family gram, these were humorous short stories, thinly based on actual events that entertained all who received them and were eagerly anticipated.
Services for Nathan will be held at the LDS building on Old Frontier Road, Silverdale at 1:00 PM 5 April. He will be interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Bremerton at 3:30 PM the same day. A reception will be held back at the Frontier Building at 5 PM. All are welcome to attend any or all of the events, bring your favorite "Gnat Story" to share.
