Army 2nd Lt. Brian D. Smith

Died July 2, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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30, of McKinney, Texas; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 34th Armor, 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.; killed by enemy fire July 2 while conducting combat operations in Habbaniyah, Iraq.

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Fort Riley officer killed in Iraq

Associated Press

FORT RILEY, Kan. — An officer with the 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division from Fort Riley was killed Friday in Iraq.

Second Lt. Brian D. Smith, 30, of McKinney, Texas, was shot while conducting combat operations in Habbaniyah, Iraq, military officials at Fort Riley said Tuesday. Thirty-eight soldiers from Fort Riley have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.

Smith was a platoon leader of Company A, 1st Battalion, 34th Armor Regiment. He had been stationed at Fort Riley since December and deployed to Iraq in January. He was commissioned in the Army in June 2003.

After growing up in McKinney, Smith graduated from law school at Baylor University in 1998. He had practiced family law in Austin before joining the Army.

“I looked at Brian as I had 30 years to love him and watch him grow into the man he became. ... But 30 years is all I had,” Smith’s father, William Smith, told Dallas-Fort Worth television station KTVT.

His mother, Linda Smith, told the TV station that her son, who lived in Austin with his wife, had a “kind of hyper” personality, except when he was reading. “Then you couldn’t stir him with a stick,” she said.

Approximately 4,500 Fort Riley soldiers are deployed in Iraq. In June, about 800 soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, returned to Iraq for a yearlong deployment. The soldiers fought in the early stages of the war, returning to Fort Riley in July 2003.