Erin McLyman: 'She did what she wanted to do'

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Erin McLyman

By Jennifer Winters KVAL News

Story Published: Mar 18, 2010 at 3:59 PM PST

EUGENE, Ore. -- A memorial service is scheduled for next week to honor a 2001 Sheldon High School graduate who died Saturday in a mortar attack in Iraq

U.S. Army PFC. Erin McLyman, 26, was killed in a mortar attack on her base in Balad, Iraq.
    
MyLyman's family said she died doing what she loved, but that doesn't make the pain any easier.
    
Erin's mother, Flora Neustrel, said she was proud of her daughter long before she joined the military to fight for her country - and long before she deployed to Iraq.
    
"When I was in college I had to do a paper on my hero," she said, "and I did it on Erin."
    
Neustrel was inspired by her daughter's fight against addiction as a teenager. Erin told her story to KVAL News in 2001.
    
Then 17, she shared how her life spun out of control. "I drank and smoked a lot of weed and used crank and cocaine," Erin said.
    
Erin's parents thought their daughter had already faced her biggest challenge.
    
"Erin was the type who could get herself out of everything," Neustrel said. 

Watch the 2001 story about McLyman
    

A hero's welcome
    
Erin's family was there for the dignity transfer when her body came home from Iraq to Dover Airforce Base.


An Army carry team lifts a transfer case containing the remains of Spc. Erin L. McLyman Monday, March 15, 2010 at Dover Air Force Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense, McLyman, of Federal Way, Wash., died while supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)

"It was the most honorable and wonderful thing I've ever seen," her father Bob Lyman said. "It made me very proud of her and very proud of this country and what she stood for and why she was there."
    
Bob Lyman said his daughter died fighting for freedom. He said it was her way to help and to seek adventure.
    
But that doesn't make her death any easier for her mom.
    
"I'm upset because she should still be here, but she chose that and she did what she wanted to do," she said.
    
Erin's sister Mescha McLyman said Erin was supposed to come home in July; back to her new husband, Brian Williams; back into her family's arms; and on to her next adventure.
    
She said she is not so much angry but sad. "I just want my sister back," she said.
    
The memorial service is scheduled for Thursday, March 25, at the Eugene Faith Center at 2 p.m.
    
A military service will be held the following week on March 31 at Fort Lewis Base, Wash.
    
A memorial fund has also been established in Erin's honor at Pacific Continental Bank.

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