Cpl. Matthew Reed Smith

Memorial Service Held for Marine Killed in Iraq
Feb. 5, 2005

The family of the Utah Marine who died in a recent helicopter crash in Iraq gathered for his memorial service.

Kimberly Houk joins us with more.

Corporal Matthew Reed Smith was just 24 years old...when his family says he died while trying to help people in Iraq...people who didn't even know him.

It was a cause his family says he believed in.

A Marine was laid to rest in front of many who watched him grow to be a man...one who wanted to serve his country...

one who died doing it.

Colleen Parkin, Mother "I KNOW HE'S NOW WITH THE ANGELS IN HEAVEN, AND I KNOW HE WRAPS HIS ARMS STILL AROUND ME."

A mother struggling to say good-bye...lays a flag on her son's coffin...a symbol of patriotic service...the heroic kind.

Gary Smith, Father "I JUST THINK HE'S A HERO. HE DIED FOR HIS COUNTRY."

While on a mission to make another country safe for citizens to vote.

Arriving in Iraq just a few months ago, Smith spent most of his time fighting in dangerous Fallujah...

Last week he boarded a chopper with 30 others...

Flying into a sandstorm...it crashed...and killed everyone on board.

Today, his brothers in combat had to bury one of their own...and Brian Johnston took it the hardest...having lost his right arm and leg when his humvee was hit by mortar fire in Fallujah...

He says nothing was going to keep him from being here to honor his best friend.

"HE HAD A DEMEANOR ABOUT HIM THAT MADE YOU WANT TO KEEP GOING WHEN YOU WANTED TO QUIT- WHEN SOMETHING WAS TOUGH, HE WAS ALWAYS THERE."

Colleen Parkin, Mother "I KNOW MATT IS HERE. HE WILL ALWAYS LIVE IN OUR HEARTS."

always as an American protector.

The family is asking other to help remember their son by donating blood to the American Red Cross.

They are holding a blood drive on March 4th at the Kearns High School.