Christopher S. Smith, a U.S. Army veteran who was injured in Afghanistan in 2006, died unexpectedly Thursday, Aug. 28, and will be buried with full military honors.

Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 2 at the Belton-Stroup Funeral Home, 422 E. Dayton-Yellow Springs Road in Fairborn. The funeral service will be there at 10 a.m. Wednesday, with burial in Byron Cemetery.

Smith, 25, had been honorably discharged and medically retired from the Army in February, nearly four years after he enlisted.

The 2001 Fairmont High School graduate had been living with his parents in Fairborn. Sheila Smith said Tuesday her son had been accepted at Wright State University and was looking forward to pursuing his interest in structural engineering.

"He was ecstatic about that," she said.

Smith's family is waiting on autopsy results after he was pronounced dead at 4:15 a.m. Thursday at his girlfriend's South Charleston residence. She had summoned medics when she was unable to awaken him, according to his mother.

Tom Comer, a senior investigator for the Clark County Coroner's Office, said toxicology tests and other results from the autopsy which was done in Montgomery County could take up to eight weeks.

Sheila Smith said her son, who served with the 10th Mountain Division based in Fort Drum, N.Y., walked with a cane and his doctor recently prescribed stronger pain patches.

Smith had been injured in Afghanistan while a gunner in a Humvee in June 2006. He was thrown from the Humvee and landed on his head after a rocket-propelled grenade struck the vehicle. He ruptured several discs in his neck and back, his mother said. He was later diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and also suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, she said.

Smith's father, Stephen Smith said his son was "a brave young man."

The Army sergeant had appeared in news footage shot by an NBC film crew with his unit in Afghanistan. Sheila Smith said she watched the clip often to feel connected with her son, who would call her to say he was going to be out of touch for awhile because he was heading out on another mission — usually one for which he volunteered.

"He had such a sense of patriotism," she said, noting that he recently tried to join the Army Reserve.