Fallen Paratrooper to be Remembered by Murrieta Police

Posted by Alexander Nguyen

A U.S. Army paratrooper-medic killed in Afghanistan will be honored by the Murrieta Police Department at a flag ceremony Wednesday, marking the second anniversary of his death.

Sgt. Eric E. Williams died July 23, 2012, when he was struck by enemy fire after departing his base in Ghazni province, preparing to return home following a yearlong deployment.

"As for our accomplishments here in Afghanistan, I'd do it again in a heartbeat," Williams wrote in his blog six days before he was killed. "I will forever hold these experiences close."

At 8 a.m. Wednesday, Murrieta police officers will hoist a flag above the police station in honor of the 27-year-old soldier.

According to Murrieta police Sgt. Jay Froboese, the flag-raising is part of the police department's "Honor a Hero — Fly Their Flag" program, started last year. This will be the fourth ceremony to honor a veteran, Froboese told City News Service.

Williams' mom, Janet, other immediate family, friends and representatives from several organizations will be on hand for the salute.

Williams was a Murrieta Valley High School graduate and served as president of the Murrieta Fire Department's Fire Explorers' program. In 2002, the same year he graduated high school, he earned his emergency medical technician certification from Mt. San Jacinto College.

He graduated from the fire academy at Riverside Community College in 2004, but decided on national service, entering the Army in 2007.

In 2008, he served as a combat medic in Iraq, returning to the states that year, working at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, as an emergency room medic. He became a certified flight medic in 2011 while stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and was deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom several months later.

He earned the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart, according to family members.

In his blog, Williams expressed frustration about the attitudes of Americans on the homefront, citing complacency and lack of genuine patriotism as pervasive.

"We cannot live in a world where we hold onto the ideals that bitching solves anything, where we believe that things will be taken care of for us," he wrote in his final blog entry. "If you want something done, go out and get it done — period."

According to Froboese, the flag that will be flown over the police station was the same one with which Williams covered his grandfather's coffin when the World War II Army Air Corps pilot was laid to rest in 2008.

The flag will be flown until Sept. 5, which would have been his 30th birthday.

— City News Service