Honoring a Father, Protector

Sergeant Who Died in Iraq Talked of Being a Police Officer

Sgt. Timothy M. Smith wanted to help people. He wanted to be a protector. So he joined the Army and talked about becoming a police officer after he finished his service.

Smith, 25, died April 7 in Baghdad of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered a makeshift bomb while on a route clearance patrol to find and safely detonate such devices.

The South Lake Tahoe, Calif., native was a doting father and husband. His mother said that he worked at a hotel and a restaurant after he graduated from high school in 2001 but that he had wanted to do more with his life.

"He just always wanted to help people," Patricia Smith told the Los Angeles Times. "He was always a protector."

Yesterday, 35 mourners came to Arlington National Cemetery for a memorial service honoring Smith. His tombstone rested on a sloping hill in the cemetery's Memorial Section K, in the northeastern most section of the cemetery. His stone was marked by a single miniature American flag.

Just as mourners arrived, the sun peeked out from behind clouds to bathe their service in light. The family and friends gathered facing the shade-covered hill and, between them and the tombstone, sat a flower-laden wreath from his family bearing two sashes: one with his name, the other with the message, "With All Our Love And Pride."

The chaplain, Lt. Col. Harry Rauch, spoke over the constant sounds of cars and planes from nearby Jefferson Davis Highway and Reagan National Airport. Rauch talked about Smith's love of sports and called him "courageous."

Seven riflemen, standing on the hill to the right of Smith's tombstone, fired off three shots apiece, and then from behind the tombstone, a bugler rang out taps.

Smith's younger siblings, his brother, Tommy, and his sister, Jackie, each accepted a folded flag. After this, the mourners took the wreath with them and moved up the hillside and closer to the tombstone.

Smith joined the Army in April 2004 and became a combat engineer noncommissioned officer who was awarded the Purple Heart and many other decorations. He was assigned to the 4th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (light infantry), at Fort Polk, La.

Smith had e-mailed his family regularly to say he was doing fine. He'd ask for such things as chewing tobacco, which his mother sent him on condition he would quit when he returned home, she told the Los Angeles Times.

After a 2006 tour in Afghanistan, he returned home for leave in December of that year and began a romantic relationship with his future wife, Shayna. She said the Army had changed Smith from the "party animal" boy he had been when they were younger.