Edward Bernard Smith weighed just more than two pounds at birth, and when he finally came home from the hospital he was still so small that he could sleep in a shoe box.

``He was not as long as my forearm,'' said Annette Parrish, 66, the grandmother who raised him in Southwest Miami-Dade.

Smith not only survived his premature birth, but grew up to become a soldier. He served 16 months in Iraq, and then reenlisted in the Army after deciding to make a career in the military.

Sgt. Smith, 30, did not survive his next assignment, the war in Afghanistan.

He and two fellow soldiers died Thursday when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Omar Zai. All were assigned to the 23rd Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division out of Fort Lewis, Wash.

``He loved the military. He was gung-ho,'' said his grandfather Edward Parrish, 75, a retired county truck driver.

``He would always tell me about the new technology, the new weapons they had.''

Called Bernard, Smith attended Miami Southridge Senior High School, and finished at South Dade Senior High in Homestead before enlisting in 2002.

After his tour in Iraq, his aunt Yalunda Evans said, ``He came home more mature, not as playful as he was. He saw so much.''

Smith was one of eight children born to Sophia Smith Carter, the Parrishes' daughter, who died of kidney failure in 1997 at age 32.

``He loved his family, and really appreciated what family meant,'' said Evans, 34. ``He was the one who always pulled the family together.''

Smith was last home in April for the funeral of his brother Samuel, 24, who died when he was struck by a truck as he tried to cross U.S. 1 near the family home in Goulds.

In addition to many relatives in Miami-Dade, Smith leaves a wife, Jamie, and two stepchildren in Kentucky.

Plans for a memorial service were incomplete Monday.

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