U.S. Marine Corps First Lieutenant Nathan Cole trades one mission for another
Nathan Cole always wanted to serve his fellow Marines. Now, as one of those rare individuals diagnosed with ALS in his 30s, he is taking on a new role to support them.
By Michelle Ryan
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Nathan Cole knew from an early age what his mission in life would be after watching the 9/11 attacks on television.
“I wanted to be a pilot. I wanted to help Marines,” he said. “That was my mission growing up.”
But on Memorial Day weekend in 2024 the first lieutenant noticed something that didn’t feel right.
“I noticed some inability to do some exercise in my right hand,” he said. “I noticed immediately something was weird.”
By January 2025, at age 31, he was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) by physicians at USA Health, the academic health system for the University of South Alabama.
ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks motor neurons, leading to muscle weakness, paralysis, and eventually respiratory failure, with no known cure. The average age of diagnosis is 55.
Unable to fly, Nathan’s diagnosis brought profound challenges for the father of two small children.
“It’s devastating not to be able to fly,” he said. “But not being able to play with my kids is the worst.”
After 12 years of service, Nathan’s mission is changing, and he’s being assigned to a Wounded Warrior Battalion-West location in Arizona.
“The whole mission of this unit is to help service members who have experienced catastrophic injuries, illnesses or diseases have time to seek medical care while on active duty,” he said.
Nathan is grateful to be mobile after more than a year of experiencing symptoms.
“The USA Health Kelly Butler ALS Center has given us some type of stability. Having that multidisciplinary team has been remarkable,” he said. “Having an ALS center within an hour or two driving distance is huge. Frankly, it’s necessary. The more you progress, the harder it is to travel.”
According to center staff, Cole has approached his ALS journey as a mission.
“Nathan's determination and positive outlook is awe inspiring. He has faced his diagnosis head-on, with a fierce determination to find the cure,” said Christy Byrd, MSN, RN, patient navigator at the center. “His attitude is clearly similar to the clinic’s namesake, Kelly Butler.”
Butler’s quote is displayed in the center on a plaque that reads: “I'm going to do everything humanly possible to help the doctors and researchers find a cure for ALS so that one day, this becomes a disease that people talk about in the past.”
The Kelly Butler ALS Center is the first of its kind along the upper Gulf Coast, offering care from a multidisciplinary team, which eliminates the need for patients to make multiple appointments and travel longer distances.
Although Nathan has moved out of the area, he plans to return to Alabama for the Kelly Butler Walk to End ALS, planned for Saturday, Nov. 15, on the USA campus.
“It’s really easy to be pessimistic and be depressed and give up any hope that you have,” Cole said. “My message is to not give up that hope.”
Driven by that sentiment, he founded a biotech company to advance research and clinical trials, aiming to develop better treatments or even a cure for ALS.
