Gov. Chet Culver ordered that all flags in the state be flown at half staff Friday, October 3, 2008, from 8 a.m. (CST) until sunset in honor of Staff Sgt. Nathan Cox, 32, who was killed Sept. 20 in the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan, when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.

Cox’s body arrived early Monday at the Quad-City International Airport in Moline, the Quad-City Times reported.

Flag to fly half staff in honor of Staff Sgt. Nathan Cox

Flag to fly half staff in honor of Staff Sgt. Nathan Cox

“It was really something to see the interstate closed down and all the roads closed down and seeing the people standing along the side of the road,” Jane Cox, Nathan’s mother, told the Quad-City Times. “It really came home to me that he was a hero.”

Cox, a native of Walcott, was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas, which deployed to Afghanistan in July. He served three years in Bosnia in the mid 1990s and rejoined the Army when he was 29.

A native of Walcott, Cox was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas, which deployed to Afghanistan in July. He served a year in Iraq before he was sent to Afghanistan.

Cox, who graduated from Davenport Central High School, is survived by his wife, Annie Cox, a native of Princeton, Iowa and their five-year old daughter Sophia Cox.

Visitation for Sgt. Nathan Cox will be 2-7 p.m. Thursday at Sacred Heart Cathedral, 422 E. 10th St., Davenport. The funeral will be at the cathedral at 10 a.m. Friday, with burial at National Cemetery, Rock Island Arsenal.

Cox was the 68th person with Iowa ties to die in Iraq and Afghanistan since March 2003.