NEWPORT, Rhode Island, Jan. 23 -- The Naval Sea Systems Command issued the following news: As Nathan Thomas Jr. stood alongside nearly 600 demonstrators on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on Sunday, March 7, 1965, he did not know that what he was doing would be a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement. "We were just ordinary folks," Thomas said. "Nobody was trying to be great. The one thing we were trying to do was stay alive." Thomas, now a 74-year-old retired U.S. Army colo more PR