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DEL.ICIO.USNew baby eases returning GI’s pain
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeremy Redmon/AJC
Spc. Eric Smith holds a photo of his newborn baby girl, Skylar. He said his thoughts are with her as he travels back to Iraq to rejoin the 648th Engineer Battalion in Iraq.
Loud noises. War movies. Even food brings the painful memories flooding back to Spc. Eric Smith.
It was Aug. 3. Smith said he was sitting in a Humvee at a security checkpoint near Baghdad that day. He was heating up a military ration when he heard a massive explosion. A mushroom cloud appeared about two miles away, he said, where three of his buddies were manning another traffic checkpoint.
Smith rushed to the site of the blast and witnessed a grisly scene. A suicide car bomber killed three soldiers from his unit, Charlie Company of the Statesboro-based 648th Engineer Battalion.
Smith said he sought help from a military combat stress expert, but he still has flashbacks and nightmares about that day. He spoke about his experience over the weekend as he ate dinner at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. He had a fragile, even pained, look in his eyes.
“It replays itself every night - just about,” said Smith, 35, of Waycross, a truck driver and volunteer firefighter. “Something like that just stays with you. You just learn to live with it and move on.”
Smith was waiting for a flight back to Iraq. He had just spent about a month with his family at home on leave. Soldiers normally get about a two-week break from overseas deployments. Smith said he needed to spend several more days at home because his wife, Amanda, had medical problems exacerbated by their baby’s delivery.
On Jan. 6, she gave birth to a baby girl, Skyla, Eric’s first child. Skylar came in at 8 pounds, 3 ounces.
“She’s really healthy,” Smith said of his daughter. “She has a head full of hair.”
As his departure neared, Smith said he wasn’t focusing on Iraq and the death and destruction there.
He said he was thinking about being with his family. Playing with his two young step-daughters. Listening to his new baby girl cry.
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By Momma Kat Orr
February 6, 2006 09:06 AM | Link to this
{{{{HUGS}}}} to Spc. Eric Smith & family!!! Godspeed, sir ~ you are in our prayers as you go back into the fray… your nation stands with you, holding you - and all our dear heroes - close to our hearts and in our prayers always.