Tim Smith

Tim Smith grew up playing a lot of basketball at the Boys Club of St. Louis on Sidney and 11th Streets. He graduated from Affton High School in 1997 and went on to Forest Park Community College and later the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

In July 2003, 15 credit hours short of his college degree, he enlisted in the United States Army. The nation was at war, and he wanted to serve.

Tim Smith was assigned to the 1st Armored Division, 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment — “Iron Thunder.” He was deployed to Iraq in early 2004, his unit stationed at forward operating bases, first outside Baghdad and then near Fallujah.

There, Tim got to know Sgt. Ryan Campbell, a “great NCO who always looked after his soldiers.” Sgt. Campbell “made sure they had the right supplies and equipment for their mission,” that he “was accessible — if you had problems you could talk with him.”

Sgt. Campbell was from Kirksville, Mo. It was a comfort to Tim Smith, so far from home, to know a guy who was from close to home. Sgt. Campbell was an ardent St. Louis Cardinals fan. Tim Smith would talk baseball with him — Cardinals baseball.

PFC Norman Darling of Middleboro, Mass., was another of Tim Smith’s pals. “Doc was a great medic and a caring guy,” Tim said, a young man devoted to his family who liked to talk about his telephone calls home.

Tim recalls going to Burger King with Doc Darling, who was tickled about having just acquired a cell phone that would help him keep in closer contact with his family.

The next day — April 29, 2004 — Tim Smith pulled guard duty. As he completed his midnight-to-noon shift, he learned that “eight of our boys from Charlie Battery” had been killed.

The soldiers had approached a car on a security sweep. The driver detonated an improvised explosive device. Doc Darling, 29, and Ryan Campbell, 25, were among the dead.

“My heart dropped,” Tim said. “It doesn’t seem real, even though it is.”

Tim completed his tour in Iraq in July 2004. He married his longtime sweetheart, Terri, to whom he had been engaged when he left for overseas.

They decided to wait to get married until he was out of Iraq, “in case something happened.” They lived in Baumholder, Germany, while he completed his enlistment. He was honorably discharged and returned home to St. Louis on Feb. 17, 2007.

Tim Smith didn’t find work for five months. He finally was hired as a night mail handler at the Post Office.

He had been in some tough spots when in Iraq. When he got home, he was anxious when he heard loud noises, watched rooftops when he was outdoors, became nervous at traffic lights and sometimes reflexively would look for a weapon under his bed — as though he still were in Iraq.

His family (which now includes two sons, Tim, Jr., 3, and Tyler, 10 months) and his fellow veterans helped him through those times.

More than five years later, hardly a day passes that he doesn’t think about Ryan Campbell and Doc Darling and his other buddies who didn’t come home. Their memory “gives me great encouragement and pride,” he says. Their example has inspired him to pursue a career in service to veterans.

The Mission Continues, an innovative service organization whose headquarters are in St. Louis, arranged a paid fellowship for Tim. It enabled him to work full-time helping veterans.

Tim finished his degree at UMSL, earning a bachelor’s in social work. With help and encouragement from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Tim  has enrolled in the graduate program at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University — all the while working full-time at the VA Medical Center’s Hope Recovery Center on Jefferson Avenue.

Tim counsels veterans coping with severe mental health problems. He focuses on practical skills such as computer literacy, helping them to “work on their strengths.” He serves as their advocate, helping them navigate the VA system and through life. He has organized a student group at the George Warren Brown School called “Stand United for Veterans.”

Ken Harbaugh is a former Navy pilot who co-founded The Mission Continues and serves as its executive director. He observed how people often “conflate Memorial Day and Veterans Day,” even though today’s holiday is intended to honor those who died in service of country, and Veterans Day honors all of those who served.

Still, he sees a connecting thread, one that links all of us, veterans and non-veterans, to those who died:

Giving service in the name of those who died by helping living veterans who still long for solid, productive lives of service to others.

“Initially,” Mr. Harbaugh said, “people think they’re doing the veteran a favor. Almost every time they come to realize that the example the veteran sets, and the real work they can do … is indispensable.”

Remembering the dead is important, and among the best ways is by offering opportunity to veterans. Mr. Harbaugh suggested it is a “far more permanent memorial to the fallen, to who they were and what they gave than words etched in stone.”

Tim Smith and his co-workers at the Hope Recovery Center have been given that opportunity. His words of advice on this Memorial Day: “Give veterans an opportunity to continue their service. Welcome the veterans. Let them share a little about the veteran experience. Give us opportunity, and we’ll make it happen.”