Andrew M Harper

Maidsville, West Virginia

March 11, 2011

 Died in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained in a non-combat incident.

Army Pfc. Andrew M. Harper honored in dignified transfer March 13

3/14/2011 - A U.S. Army carry team transfers the remains of Army Pfc. Andrew M. Harper, of Maidsville, W.Va., at Dover Air Force Base, Del., March 13, 2011. Harper was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany. (U.S. Air Force photo/Roland Balik)

Fallen soldier’s girlfriend recalls nightly Skype conversations

The Associated Press

Andrew Harper would talk to his girlfriend, Chelsea Smith, every night at 9:30 p.m. via video chat.

She described those Skype conversations in an online memorial: “I didn’t know how much I would come to care for you, but our almost daily Skype-dates always brightened my day,” she wrote.

“... that is when we talked, and our relationship deepened into something I don’t think either one of us expected.”

Harper, 19, of Maidsville, W.Va., died March 11 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, in a noncombat related incident. He was based in Vilseck, Germany.

Smith wrote about the time they met — in Atlanta’s airport Oct. 13 on the way back to Jacksonville, Fla.

“When you told me that you thought the vacant seat next to you on the plane was mine, I knew my heart was sunk,” she wrote.

Harper’s family wrote in an obituary that Harper was an avid Pittsburgh Steelers and West Virginia University Mountaineers fan. He also enjoyed hunting and fishing.

He graduated from University High School, where he was on the football, track and wrestling teams.