Iraq war veteran, 24, falls off roof, dies in Steamboat Springs

By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published February 29, 2008 at 11:49 a.m.
Updated February 29, 2008 at 1:40 p.m.

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Photo by Courtesy of Eric O'Hara's family

Sgt. Eric O'Hara died after falling off an icy roof in Steamboat Springs on Thursday.

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STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — An Iraq war veteran survived 15 months of combat only to die a month after being discharged when he fell off an icy roof in Steamboat Springs on Thursday.

The irony is making the loss even more unfathomable to Eric O'Hara's family.

"Having made it through 15 months in Iraq, and then to have this happen ... it's really tough," O'Hara's uncle, Dave Patston, said from O'Hara's home in Centennial.

"Everyone loved him ... I never met a person who did not love him," said O'Hara's grandmother, Dolores Spurgeon.

"His colonel called this morning and told his mother — my daughter — that Eric was the most remarkable young man he'd ever worked with, a born leader."

O'Hara, 24, split his time between the Denver area and Steamboat Springs, graduating from high school in Steamboat Springs, Spurgeon said.

He joined the military because he was devastated by the events of September 11, 2001, his grandmother said.

"He'd been in and out of the twin towers (of the World Trade Center in New York) when he was little," Spurgeon said. "His father was a stockbroker and had offices there.

When he saw the towers tumble down, "It just gnawed at him. He decided, 'I need to go to defend my country.'"

O'Hara had enrolled at Metropolitan State College of Denver and was pursuing a degree in finance and business, Spurgeon said.

On Thursday, he was at the Steamboat Grand Resort Hotel, helping remove snow from the roof, according to Routt County Coroner Rob Ryg.

He was using ropes and a carabiner for safety. He had released the clip so he could move along a safety rope, and slid down the roof when he was unattached.

Others on the roof had used a double-carabinered safety system, Ryg said.

He died at the scene after landing on his back on a lower roof.

O'Hara served with the 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg, N.C., doing daily hazardous duty out of Tikrit, Iraq.

The funeral will be in Steamboat Springs on Tuesday; with burial at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver on Wednesday, Spurgeon said. Exact times aren't yet known.

Patston said he'll remember how much his nephew "cared about family and friends. He always worried about everyone else, not about himself."

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