CW3 US Army
2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, out of Hunter Army Airfield, GA

He was killed when his UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed in central Iraq. Eric had wanted to fly since he was a little boy, but by the time he graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology he figured his grades would keep him grounded. In the mid-1980s, some Air Force pilots he met gave him new hope. They told him he would be better off going into the Army and being a helicopter pilot, even though it's more difficult to fly a helicopter than a plane. He told his mother that if anything happened to him, she should remember it was his choice. He said if he's going to die, he wants to die flying a helicopter. The youngest of three brothers, Eric never married. "He was always hoping to find a girl to marry," his mother said. "But because he moved around so much, if he met somebody he felt it wouldn't be fair to pick her up from her roots unless it was the right type of girl that could adjust."

Interment on May 12, 2003.

CW3 US Army
2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, out of Hunter Army Airfield, GA

He was killed when his UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed in central Iraq. Eric had wanted to fly since he was a little boy, but by the time he graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology he figured his grades would keep him grounded. In the mid-1980s, some Air Force pilots he met gave him new hope. They told him he would be better off going into the Army and being a helicopter pilot, even though it's more difficult to fly a helicopter than a plane. He told his mother that if anything happened to him, she should remember it was his choice. He said if he's going to die, he wants to die flying a helicopter. The youngest of three brothers, Eric never married. "He was always hoping to find a girl to marry," his mother said. "But because he moved around so much, if he met somebody he felt it wouldn't be fair to pick her up from her roots unless it was the right type of girl that could adjust."

Interment on May 12, 2003.