Erin L. McLyman
 |
| Age: |
|
26 |
| Hometown: |
Federal Way, WA
|
| Date of Death: |
3/13/2010 |
| Incident Location: |
Balad, Iraq
|
| Branch of Military: |
|
Army |
| Rank: |
Pfc. |
| Unit: |
296th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division
|
| Unit's Base: |
Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash |
|
Erin McLyman emerged from high school a confident, good student who before graduating had overcome a severe, years-long drug addiction.
“My grades were dropping, I wasn’t going to class, weird people would come over to the house and drop by in the middle of the night. I’d leave and not come back,” a 17-year-old McLyman said nine years ago in an interview with KVAL-TV in Eugene, Ore.
She was sharing her success story of kicking a habit she said had involved using marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine. After graduating from Sheldon High School in Eugene, where she was a member of a dance team, she enlisted in the Air Force.
She later re-enlisted with the Oregon National Guard and returned to active duty with the Army.
“She lived every moment like she didn’t have a second to spare,” her family wrote.