Nigel Elder, a decorated United States sailor who was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, survived the horrors of the war in Iraq but was unable to escape death in a tragic motor cycle accident in Honolulu, Hawaii, last month.

The accident occurred just over two months before Elder was set to return to this country to celebrate Christmas before going off to serve in Afghanistan in January where the American forces are fighting a bitter campaign against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Elder, who had changed his last name to Kennedy after he enlisted in the US Navy in 2004, was a Hospital Corpsman Third class and died at the age of 29.

A memorial service is scheduled to take place at his grandparents’ home in his hometown of Chaguanas today.

Speaking with the Express during a telephone interview last week from New York where Elder was buried his mother, Carol Elder, still had some difficulty talking about the loss of her first-born son.

’Of course, there is still a numbness in my body when I talk about it. I am very proud of him,’ she said.

His mother said her son visited Trinidad and Tobago ’every chance he got’ and ’was looking forward to coming home for Christmas’.

His sister, Karlene Maharaj, who also lives in New York, said her brother ’truly enjoyed life’ and left a legacy of ’making a difference in somebody else’s life’.

Maharaj recalled that while he attended the Miracle Ministries Church when he lived in Chaguanas, Elder helped a young man to stop dealing drugs and turn his life around.

Elder was born on September, 6, 1980 in Chaguanas and migrated to Brooklyn New York in 2001 where worked as a parts specialist before he enlisted in the US Navy.

The Hawaii News Now website reported that Elder died in a motorcycle accident on October 11, on Oahu’s north shore when he apparently lost control of his motorcycle and collided with a car but added he was wearing a helmet. The police said speed, alcohol, and drugs were not involved.