STEUBEN, NY, USA
U.S. Marines
LCPL, 1ST BN, 6TH MAR, (RCT-7 FWD), 2D MAR DIV, CAMP LEJEUNE, NC
HELMAND PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN 01/24/2010
Lance Corporal Zachary Smith was assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; died January. 24, 2010 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was nineteen years old.
Hornell, New York easily remembered Zach from just a few short years before when Zachary Smith played two seasons of varsity football at Hornell High School, starting on the offensive line at the center position in 2007. He graduated in 2008 and joined the Marines in July that year. Known by those close to him for his sense of humor and athleticism, Zach was always full of life and friends and family enjoyed his bright spirit as the light of a party. Zachary‘s thoughtful side includes those who remember Zach paying for the groceries of an elderly woman who couldn’t find her credit card. Zach Smith was the Hornell community’s first casualty in the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Zach’s fun loving natures, ability to harmlessly keep everyone in smiles demonstrate such a continually positive attitude makes Zach a favorite son of the greater Hornell, New York community.
Other memories of Zach include watching him challenge football linemen who were 100 pounds bigger and Zach buying a Jeep on eBay. Others knew LCPL Smith had always wanted to be a Marine and uniforms were a part of the family as Zach’s father Christopher, is a state trooper who works as a school resource officer in the Canaseraga Central School.
Smith is survived by his wife, Anne (Deebs) Smith, who he married during the summer of 2009, his brother Nathaniel, 23, his sister Grace, 10, and his parents, Christopher Smith, an Amity-based state trooper who is the Canaseraga Central School resource officer, and his wife Kim, and his father-in-law and mother-in-law, Mike and Andrea Deebs of Hornell, New York.
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