Even as he was mortally wounded after being hit by shrapnel from an IED, Lt. Erik McCrae was more concerned about his men than himself.  His father, Scott McCrae, a retired colonel with the Oregon National Guard, says, “Even when they got [Erik] to the hospital, he was concerned about how his guys were doing, even though he had lost, basically, almost all of his blood by that time because he had so much shrapnel through him.  That’s the kind of guy he was.” 

Intelligent also describes the kind of guy Erik McCrae was, having graduated from Tigard High School with a 4.0 grade point average and Linfield College in two and a half years with dual degrees in math and applied physics.  “He was just a sharp, intelligent young man,” said Scott.  “I think his men appreciated it.  They knew he was a quality person.” 

Erik married his wife, Heather, on February 27th, 2004, shortly before being deployed to Iraq.  “He was the kind of person, you would have loved to have had him for a son,” said Scott.  “You would have been proud to have had him for a son.  That’s the kind of person he was.”

• "Erik had become someone in my eyes I would be happy for my boy to emulate," said Pastor Steve McCracken, McCrae's minister at Tigard First Baptist. "Erik chose a path that would call for suffering and sacrifice for his country."
  
  His men in Iraq remembered their lieutenant as well, said Staff Sgt. David Romanowski. They were a tight crew, and "it was only fitting" that McCrae fall fighting alongside his men, he said.
  
  For McCrae, life meant everything from his belief in God to his love of others, from the new black and chrome Harley-Davidson he bought just more than a year ago -- even though he'd never ridden a motorcycle by himself before -- to the beat-up blue pickup his dad gave him in high school. The Oregonian, 6/19/04