Eric Allan Smith

Rochester, New York

April 2, 2003

I served with him in 1993/1994 in Korea...at the time he was a UH-1 pilot and I was a new 2LT. Although I had already been in Korea for a few months before he arrived, he mentored me a lot and was a superb example of what a Army warrant officer should be....I will never forget the flight we had carrying a couple of reporters from the Army magazine...on our return trip, we were flying over a small mountain that we called "the budda" and we hit a huge pocket of turbulence...I was at the controls and happened to be looking at Eric when we hit the pocket. The turbulence almost ripped the controls from my hands, and when I looked at the rate of climg and airspeed indicators, they were both pegged...Eric's face never changed and he took actually took a bite of the sandwich that he was holding in his hand. The reporters were ashen faced and the helicopter had to go into maintenance for blown hydraulic seals when we landed.