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Regular Session, 2014 ENROLLED
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 91
BY SENATORS ADLEY, ALARIO, ALLAIN, AMEDEE, APPEL, BROOME, BROWN,
BUFFINGTON, CHABERT, CLAI TOR, CORTEZ, CROWE,
DONAHUE, DORSEY-COLOMB, ERDEY, GALLOT, GUILLORY,
HEITMEIER, JOHNS, KOSTELKA, LAFLEUR, LONG, MARTINY,
MILLS, MORRELL, MORRISH , MURRAY, NEVERS, PEACOCK,
PERRY, PETERSON, RISER, GARY SMITH, JOHN SMITH,
TARVER, THOMPSON, WALSWORTH, WARD AND WHI TE
A RESOLUTION
To express the sincere condolences of the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana to the
family of U.S. Army Sergeant Stefan M. Smith upon his death in support of
Operation Enduring Freedom.
WHEREAS, Stefan M. Smith was a native of Valley, Alabama, and from a family
with strong military traditions, often relocating when his father, a U.S. Army aviator,
received orders for a new duty station; and
WHEREAS, Sergeant Smith was a 2008 graduate of Legrange High School in
Georgia, where he was a star wrestler who impressed his coaches with his training regimen
and his disciplined approach to sports activities; and
WHEREAS, Sergeant Smith used the lessons he learned in competitive sports to help
him achieve great leadership skills in his role as a city police officer in Glensville, Georgia,
for a year and a half before joining the United States Army in November 2009 and fulfilling
his lifelong dream to serve his country; and
WHEREAS, Sergeant Smith met his future wife, Kristi, when he was seventeen and
living at Fort Stewart, Georgia, where his father was stationed on active duty, and he would
ultimately marry her and begin a family that would include three children, sons, Dewey and
Denver, and a daughter, Gracie Smith, whom he would never meet; and
WHEREAS, three years into his enlistment, Sergeant Smith received his orders to
report for deployment to Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan as a member of the
3
rd
Battalion, 15
th
Infantry Regiment, 4
th
Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3
rd
Infantry
Division, based in Fort Stewart, Georgia; and
WHEREAS, twenty-four year old Sergeant Smith and his unit would be stationed in
Wardak Province where the mission would be to find and engage enemy soldiers and bring
some stability to the violent stretch of Sayadabad District; and SR NO. 91 ENROLLED
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WHEREAS, Sergeant Smith, along with his Afghan counterparts, did find the enemy
in the town of Soltan Kheyl on Tuesday, July 23, 2013, while conducting a foot patrol
searching for enemy forces suspected of being in the area; and
WHEREAS, the patrol was suspicious when they encountered a disguised insurgent
soldier riding a donkey heavily loaded with concealed explosives which were detonated,
mortally wounding Sergeant Smith and two other American soldiers, as well as five allied
Afghan troops; and
WHEREAS, Sergeant Smith's loss to his family, friends, and fellow soldiers can
never be fully measured, but his young children, aged three, two, and one year, will now
know their father only through photographs, family stories, and memories of happier days;
and
WHEREAS, Sergeant Smith was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously; and
WHEREAS, Sergeant Smith's service and sacrifice must never be forgotten by the
people of Louisiana or the many other Americans on whose behalf he fought when his
country called.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
does hereby extend its deepest and most profound condolences to the family of United States
Army Sergeant Stefan M. Smith for their terrible loss of a husband, father, son, brother,
friend and fellow soldier.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
Sergeant Smith's wife, Kristi, and his children, as well as his mother, Lisa Jabaley Mallory,
of River Ridge, Louisiana, and father, Patrick Smith, of Leesville, Louisiana.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE