Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew R. Smith

Died May 10, 2003 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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20, of Anderson, Ind.; assigned to Detachment 1, Communications Company, Headquarters and Service Battalion, 4th Force Service Support Group, Peru, Ind.; killed in a non-hostile vehicle accident in Kuwait.

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Lance Cpl. Matthew Smith died May 10 when the Humvee he was driving as part of a convoy to Kuwait’s Camp Coyote crashed into a parked trailer. His father, David Smith, said he knew his son, a radio operator, was not safe even though President Bush said the war in Iraq was over. “Last week me and my wife talked about the dangers out there,” David Smith said, “and the number of people getting killed in helicopter accidents and wrecks.” — Associated Press

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Ind. Marine's family mark decade since his death

The Associated Press

ANDERSON, Ind. — Family and friends of a U.S. Marine from Indiana who died in a 2003 Humvee crash in Kuwait marked the 10th anniversary of his death by gathering for a somber memorial at his gravesite.

Lance Cpl. Matthew R. Smith was 21 when he died on May 10, 2003, when his Humvee crashed during a military convoy to Kuwait's Camp Coyote. He had worked as radio operator for the 4th Force Service Support Group out of Peru, Ind.

Smith's mother, Patricia Smith, said during Friday's gathering at Anderson Memorial Park that she treasures her memories of him. But she told The Herald Bulletin (http://bit.ly/19a2Ion ) that even after a decade "the pain doesn't ever really numb."

"You just learn to live with it. You try to keep the memories," she said.

Some of Smith's fellow Marines also attended Friday's memorial about 40 miles northeast of Indianapolis. They gathered under a canopy over his gravestone, which includes a bronze-etched photograph of Smith's graduation day from the U.S. Marine Corps.

Smith died only days after writing his mother to tell her he was coming home. Patricia Smith learned of her son's death on Mother's Day 2003 when his platoon commander and casualty assistance officer, Suzanne Handshoe, knocked on her door to deliver the news.

"That news changed all of our lives," said Handshoe, who's now the mayor of Kendallville, Ind. She said she keeps pictures of Smith and other Marines in her office as reminders of the cost of freedom.

"Number one, that freedom is not free, and number two, that they will not be forgotten," Handshoe said.

Smith would have been 31 this month, but his mother said she remembers him as an impatient teenager, a good youngster just discovering the man he wanted to be. She said he had enlisted in the Marines to pay for school at Indiana University and had spoken about one day teaching at a military academy.

Smith's father, David Smith, said he still aches for his son 10 years later.

"It still hurts, but Matt died doing what was right. That's how we have to remember him," he said.