Lewis Nelson and Holly Downs met while studying a foreign language at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. They were married in Monterey on November 27. 2002. They have three children, Benjamin (12/15/03), Arianna (3/23/05) and Gwendolyn (4/6/08) and reside in San Angelo, TX.

Lewis was born and raised in Manassas, Virginia, but moved to Hayward, Wisconsin, where he graduated high school in 1996. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Art’s degree in history from Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After college, he moved back to Virginia before the events of 9/11 prompted him to enlist in the U.S. Army. He shipped off to basic in October of 2001, learned Korean at DLI (Monterey, CA) and then served for four years in the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) at Ft. Campbell, KY. There he deployed to Iraq in 03/04 (OIF I) with the 311th MI Bn and then again in 05/06 (OIF IV) with the 506th Regimental Combat Team (Currahee). Lewis is currently an instructor at Goodfellow Air Force Base.

Holly was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and raised in New Stanton. She graduated from Hempfield Sr. High School in 1999 and joined the traveling group Up With People (Cast 99C). After a  year of traveling throughout the U.S. and Europe, she decided to move to Lorrach, Germany. There she worked as a nanny by day and at a British pub by night for over a year. Of course, the money ran dry and Holly moved back to the states. Moved by the Army of One campaign, Holly enlisted to be a translator. It was April of 2002 when she left for basic training and it was while learning Arabic at DLI that she met and married Lewis. Holly was discharged from the Army in September of 2003 and is now a full time stay at home mother.