adf soldier scott smith who died in afghistan. supplied pic

Corporal Scott Smith. Photo: Supplied

SCOTT Smith helped protect US President Barack Obama during his visit to Darwin last year, and served as a special forces combat engineer in Afghanistan and the Solomon Islands.

But it was his most recent deployment to Afghanistan – his second – that brought his promising career to a violent end.

On Sunday night, during an operation targeting a Taliban network in or about Oruzgan, a joint team of Australian and Afghan special forces was searching a compound when a bomb detonated, killing Corporal Smith instantly.

It is not known how the bomb was triggered, but it is possible Corporal Smith, a member of the Special Operations Engineering Regiment or SOER – may have been working to defuse it. The SOER is an elite unit of Australian combat engineers who work with Australian commandos and the SAS detecting and defusing explosive, chemical, biological and radiological threats.

He is the third special forces combat engineer to have died in Afghanistan. Sergeant Brett Till and Sapper Rowan Robinson were killed in March 2009 and June 2011, respectively. Both served in the SOER, then named the Incident Response Regiment.

Corporal Smith, 24, from the Barossa Valley in South Australia, enlisted in 2006 and joined the SOER two years later. He was an experienced soldier and undertook a 2006 tour of the Solomon Islands and a 2010 tour of Afghanistan.

He was also chosen to be part of Operation Norwich, the Defence contribution to the operation to safeguard Mr Obama during his brief stay in Darwin in November last year.

He returned to Afghanistan in July and was only weeks from finishing his tour when he was killed.

A Defence statement released yesterday described Corporal Smith as a talented young soldier with a bright future.

”He [was] a genuine, honest and dedicated member who was probably one of the best junior non-commissioned officers that the unit has seen. His loss will be deeply felt,” the statement read.

Corporal Smith is also the latest in a long list of special forces soldiers who have died during the 11-year war in Afghanistan. Of the 39 Australian troops killed during the war, 19 have been either SAS troopers, commandos or special forces combat engineers.

Australia’s staged withdrawal from Afghanistan is due to be complete by the end of 2014.

Corporal Smith is survived by his partner Liv, his parents Katrina and Murray, and his sister Roxanne.

■The funeral for Sapper Jordan Penpraze, who was killed earlier this month when an army truck rolled during a training exercise at Holsworthy barracks, was held on the Mornington Peninsula yesterday.

Sapper Penpraze, 22, enlisted in April and was due to graduate as a sapper in the Royal Australian Engineer Corps the week he died.