Michael J. Smith
Profile
Age: 24
From: Media, Pa.
Assigned to 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry, 2nd Infantry Division, Camp Casey, Korea
Incident: Army Spc. Michael J. Smith was killed Jan. 11 when his military vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Ramadi, Iraq.
Died: January 11, 2005
Soldier killed in Iraq remembered for patriotism
Associated Press
COATESVILLE, Pa. — The father of a suburban Philadelphia native killed in Iraq said his son was a true believer in the infantry work he was doing.
Spc. Michael J. Smith, 24, died Tuesday when a rocket-propelled grenade hit his military vehicle in Ramadi.
“He thought it was important that we be there and help these people,” said his father, James H. Smith, 63, of Coatesville. “He was all about helping and doing what he could to help liberate these people, politics aside.”
Smith, who was raised in Springfield, Delaware County, dropped out of high school and sang in a heavy metal band before enlisting in the Army. His father said he did so to serve his country and improve his life. The two had been close since Michael Smith’s mother died of cancer in 1995.
He had married a Russian woman, Oksana, whom he had met while stationed in Korea, his...