Army Capt. Adam P. Snyder

Died December 5, 2007 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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26, of Fort Pierce, Fla.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Ky.; died Dec. 5 in Tikrit, Iraq, from wounds sustained when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. Also killed were Army Sgt. Eric J. Hernandez and Army Pvt. Dewayne L. White.

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Fort Pierce soldier killed in Iraq known for acting, singing

The Associated Press

FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A 101st Airborne Division soldier killed in Iraq had hoped to become an actor, relatives said.

Capt. Adam P. Snyder of Fort Pierce died Dec. 5 from injuries he suffered in a roadside bombing in Iraq.

Two other soldiers based at Fort Campbell, a sprawling Army post on the Kentucky-Tennessee state line, died in the explosion after their Humvee hit the roadside bomb in Beiji, Iraq. Sgt. Eric Hernandez of Waldwick, N.J., and Pvt. Dewayne White of Country Club Hills, Ill., died Dec. 4.

All three were assigned to the 101st Airborne Division’s 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team.

Snyder graduated from West Point, where he sang in the glee club, and previously served in Iraq in 2004-2005.

Relatives say the 26-year-old had hoped to move to California and try a career as an actor after his military service ended in 2009. Friends remembered Snyder for his roles in Christmas plays at the Westside Baptist Church, and as Harold Hill in a production of “The Music Man” at Lincoln Park Academy, where he graduated in 2000.

Snyder’s mother received a Christmas package containing tree ornaments from her son Dec. 6. Fran Frazer said her son was supposed to move to a desk job in January because of his duties as a captain.

“He said, ‘I know that will make you happy, but it won’t make me happy,’ ” she said. “He wanted to be on the front lines with the guys.”

Snyder was resourceful in finding extra gear for the men in his command, said Breck Barker of Raleigh, N.C., whose son Snyder mentored at West Point.

“He would ask, and we would respond,” Barker said. “I had just sent him individual body armor side plate carriers so that all of his men would be protected, and he had confirmed Monday that all were deployed and the men were happy.”

The three soldiers were among nearly 11,000 soldiers in the 101st who have deployed to Iraq for a third yearlong tour that began in October.

With their deaths, the division has lost 172 soldiers since the Iraq war began in 2003.