[Glaslyn] Brian Smith (aka Friedrich von Konigsberg)
M TURNAGE
ceinwen7777777 at hotmail.com
Thu Jul 22 07:50:06 PDT 2004
I found this on the Baylor website
Baylor Law Grad Brian Smith Killed By Sniper In Iraq
July 12, 2004
by Alan Hunt
Faculty and staff at Baylor Law School remembered with fondness the quiet,
polite student who received his law degree during commencement exercises on
Feb. 5, 2000. The graduate, Brian Smith, was always polite and professional
in my dealings with him, said Law School Registrar Jerri Cunningham. He
was a good student. Faculty members endorsed her comments, recalling the
dedicated student in their classes.
Smiths career in the legal profession seemed to mirror his attitude and
determination as a law student. After law school, he started his own
practice in his home town of McKinney and then moved to Austin to work as a
successful labor and employment law attorney. But a year later, Smith
surprised everyone by his decision to join the Army. His mother, Linda
Smith, said her son was fascinated with mechanized armor.
Last week, at the age of 30, the promising lawyer-turned-soldier paid the
ultimate sacrifice when he was shot by a sniper while commanding a tank in
Iraq. Smith, who was married, was serving as a 2nd Lt. and a platoon leader
with Company A, First Battalion, 34th Armor. He was commissioned in the Army
in June 2003 and had been stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas before deployment
to Iraq in January. Smith was the 38th soldier from Fort Riley to die in
Iraq since the war began in March 2003.
The Baylor law grad and former Eagle Scout died July 2 while checking the
tread on his tank at a routine stop during a patrol in Habbaniyah, a town
about 50 miles west of Baghdad. An officer who served with him in Iraq said
Smith could have told a private to check the tracks for him when he was
shot, but he insisted on doing it himself. He said it was typical of Smith,
who preferred to lead by example. According to reports, Smith had raised his
arm as if to check the suspension on the tank when the sniper shot him under
the arm, where his bulletproof vest would not have protected him.
Smith used to email a group of his friends weekly to let them know what was
going on. In his last email before he died, he described how bomb-making
materials were discovered in an Iraqi house during a patrol, following a
mirror flashing incident from the second story window of the house. Smith
recalled how he was pouring with sweat in brutal heat when he saw the
flashes directed at his tank from the window. He said he was convinced the
flashes were designed to help the resistance against the U.S. troops.
We waited, he wrote. Maybe whoever it was would notice that the tanks
cannon was no longer looking down the road but was now pointing directly at
him. Maybe he would realize that this is not a game. Maybe, just maybe, he
would realize that we were hot and tired and terribly, so terribly
frustrated with this place and these people that we would respond to even
the slightest provocation with enthusiastic and brutal violence.
Or maybe not.
About five minutes later it came again. Flash.
Flash.
The tank crew fired at the house after that, and Smith wrote that soldiers
who went into the house found a buried cache of bomb-making equipment. They
took the owner of the house into custody.
Six days after he sent the email, Smith was dead.
Expressing his sorrow on behalf of the Baylor Law School family, Law Dean
Brad Toben said, We were so saddened to learn of Brian's death in combat.
His courage, heroism and sacrifice are so inspiring to all, but the cost of
this tragic loss of his life and the loss suffered by his wife, parents,
family and friends is without measure.
Survivors include Smiths wife, Kathleen Mary Carroll-Smith of Austin; his
mother, Linda Smith, and father, William M. Smith, both of McKinney; and his
sister, Erin M. Smith of Austin. A funeral was held July 10 in McKinney,
followed by burial there. A memorial service was held in Austin on July 11.
_________________________________________________________________
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