Alumnus Tyler Reid remembers the last conversation he had with 1st Lt. Eric D. Yates.

“I said goodbye to him that morning in front of the hotel as the valet brought our trucks down,” Reid said. “I shook his hand, (and said), ‘Well, buddy, I will see you on the other side of this thing.’ Little did I know this thing would be life, not the war.”

Family and friends gathered around Guthrie Bell Tower on Thursday afternoon to remember Yates, who was killed by a roadside bomb last weekend in Afghanistan.

President Gary Ransdell said during the ceremony that all WKU men and women fighting overseas serve for freedom.

“We pour our hearts out to you (Yates family), and we share your pride and grief,” Ransdell said in tears.

Yates – a 2008 WKU graduate – served with the 101st Airborne Division in Afghanistan.

Reid and Yates were deployed at the same time, so they celebrated their 15-day vacation together, Reid said.

“All we could talk about was Afghanistan,” Reid said. “We knew we were both in for a fight, him especially.

“Until you’ve been through it, you always have a doubt of what you will do when the first bullet passes you.The feeling of going off to war is not so much one of fear, but one of doubt until you have proven yourself.”

Yates was an artillery officer attached as a forward observer to an infantry company, Reid said. His job was to direct the artillery and aircrafts to support the infantry.

“It’s easy to forget who a guy really was when he wears a uniform – he was a good soldier, but he was much more,” Reid said.

Alumna Jessica Ray said Yates was someone she could be comfortable around.

“Like so many people, I never realized just how much I took my freedom and country for granted, until I was close to someone fighting to protect that freedom,” Ray said.

Described by friends as genuine, quiet, humble, intelligent and respectful, Yates took younger ROTC members under his wing and showed them the ropes, Ray said.

“I never saw him in soldier mode, but from what I’ve heard, he was a great leader,” she said. “He was patient and committed.”

Associate history professor Patricia Minter, who taught Yates’ senior seminar class involving civil rights, civil liberties and global perspective, said he was a great student.

“I found him to be a very interesting person,” she said. “He was someone in ROTC who came to me and wanted to write his senior seminar paper about Gandhi.”

Yates wanted to write about human rights and was very interested in South Asia, Minter said.

“He was a very nice student and a bright young man,” she said. “It’s a terrible tragedy. I’m very sad.”

Lt. Col. Jason Caldwell, head of WKU’s Department of Military Science and Leadership, said Yates gave his life to his country.

The Yates family is now honored as a “gold star family,” he said. Gold star families are families who have had loved ones die while serving in the military.

It’s a title no one wants, but it’s something you can take pride in, Caldwell said.

The family was unavailable for comment following the service.