Eric L. Allton
Profile
Age: 34
From: Houston
Assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, Camp Hovey, Korea
Incident: Army Capt. Eric L. Allton was killed Sept. 26 when he was struck by a mortar round in Ramadi, Iraq.
Died: September 26, 2004
Soldier’s widow got ‘the dreaded knock’
By Anna Webb
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — Christina Allton keeps a special “wedding shelf” in her apartment.
White bride and groom teddy bears, ceramic angels and a German wedding cup sit on folds of white satin. The shelf also holds the video of the ceremony when she married her husband, Eric, and her bouquet of artificial white roses.
Christina chose artificial flowers, she said, because as a military wife, she knew she wouldn’t be able to take perishable flowers when she crossed national borders. Her wedding bouquet looks as fresh as it did on Aug. 11, 2001, her wedding day.
Because of his military service, they were only together for one of their three wedding anniversaries.
Now Christina is forced to deal with a more profound separation.
Her husband, Eric Allton, a captain in the US Army, died in Iraq on Sept. 26 when a mortar round struck him. He...