Send to a friend.

* Note that email recipients will see only the first couple of sentences of subscriber-only stories unless they're subscribers.

Paul Ray Smith

by Sydney J Freedberg Jr
Saturday, Jan. 13, 2007


At the age of 33, Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith was already a veteran of 13 years in uniform and two wars with Iraq. "I met Paul in Desert Storm back in 1990," said Gary Coker, a retired command sergeant major. "He was a little snot-nosed pain in the ass then," Coker recalled fondly, and added that when the two men joined forces again in 2002, "he was a bigger pain in the butt. He lived for the long hours and darn near perfection. Eight o'clock at night, I'd be leaving the office and I see his guys out back still working on something. He drove my battalion commander nuts." That battalion commander, Col. Thomas Smith (no relation), recalled Sgt. Smith's hard-driving nature. "When the goal was to give the guys a break and allow everybody to slow down for a few days, he wouldn't allow that," Col. Smith said, "and the guys in his platoon hated that, in an Army kind of way."


Return to story

Recipient Email Address: (separate multiple addresses with commas.)


Your Email Address:


Your Name:


Send format: HTML Text

Add a personal message: (optional)