Advertisement

CW3 Eric Allan Smith

Advertisement

CW3 Eric Allan Smith Veteran

Birth
Rochester, Ulster County, New York, USA
Death
2 Apr 2003 (aged 41)
Iraq
Burial
Arlington, Arlington County, Virginia, USA Add to Map
Plot
Columbarium Court 6-JJ Column 20 Niche 3
Memorial ID
View Source
CW3 US Army
2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, out of Hunter Army Airfield, GA

He was killed when his UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed in central Iraq. Eric had wanted to fly since he was a little boy, but by the time he graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology he figured his grades would keep him grounded. In the mid-1980s, some Air Force pilots he met gave him new hope. They told him he would be better off going into the Army and being a helicopter pilot, even though it's more difficult to fly a helicopter than a plane. He told his mother that if anything happened to him, she should remember it was his choice. He said if he's going to die, he wants to die flying a helicopter. The youngest of three brothers, Eric never married. "He was always hoping to find a girl to marry," his mother said. "But because he moved around so much, if he met somebody he felt it wouldn't be fair to pick her up from her roots unless it was the right type of girl that could adjust."

Interment on May 12, 2003.
CW3 US Army
2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, out of Hunter Army Airfield, GA

He was killed when his UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed in central Iraq. Eric had wanted to fly since he was a little boy, but by the time he graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology he figured his grades would keep him grounded. In the mid-1980s, some Air Force pilots he met gave him new hope. They told him he would be better off going into the Army and being a helicopter pilot, even though it's more difficult to fly a helicopter than a plane. He told his mother that if anything happened to him, she should remember it was his choice. He said if he's going to die, he wants to die flying a helicopter. The youngest of three brothers, Eric never married. "He was always hoping to find a girl to marry," his mother said. "But because he moved around so much, if he met somebody he felt it wouldn't be fair to pick her up from her roots unless it was the right type of girl that could adjust."

Interment on May 12, 2003.

Sponsored by Ancestry

Advertisement

  • Maintained by: A Horan
  • Originally Created by: Brenda N
  • Added: Apr 26, 2005
  • Find a Grave Memorial ID:
  • Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10856586/eric_allan-smith: accessed ), memorial page for CW3 Eric Allan Smith (17 Jun 1961–2 Apr 2003), Find a Grave Memorial ID 10856586, citing Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Arlington County, Virginia, USA; Maintained by A Horan (contributor 47237309).