In Memoriam

(reprinted from DetNews.com, February 11, 2006)

Marine from western Michigan killed in Iraq

Cpl. Ross Smith, 21, of Wyoming dies in explosion

February 11, 2006
 

WYOMING -- A Marine from western Michigan who was on his third tour in Iraq and was months away from finishing his four-year obligation to the armed forces has been killed, his family said.

The parents of Cpl. Ross Smith, 21, of Wyoming, said they were notified of his death at their home near Grand Rapids on Thursday. The military officers who came to the home had little information other than to say that Smith died after an explosion on Wednesday in Iraq, his parents said.

"I don't have any tears left," Smith's mother, Sue, told The Grand Rapids Press.

The Defense Department hadn't confirmed Smith's death as of Friday afternoon.

Smith was a graduate of Wyoming Park High School. His family sometimes jokingly called him "little GI Joe."

Smith was a June 2002 graduate of Wyoming Park High School who enlisted in the Marines before his senior year.

The school held a moment of silence in his honor Friday, said Principal Stewart Schofield, who described Smith as a good student who was well-liked by classmates. Classmates followed his military career after graduation, he said.

When terrorists struck on Sept. 11, 2001, Sue Smith asked her son to reconsider enlistment in the Marines, which he had done just a month earlier, she said. But he wouldn't hear of it, she said.

"He said that they needed him even more now than before," his mother said. "That was the type of kid he was, committed, dedicated, never taking the easy way out.

"I don't know how I'll continue without him. I can't even imagine him not being around."

The Smith family was awaiting specifics from the Department of Defense on how and where he died.

Smith was first deployed to Iraq in February of 2003.