thedrifter
07-03-08, 08:40 AM
Posted on Thu, Jul. 03, 2008
A Marine to the core
By ANITA LEE
calee@sunherald.com
-- Donald Louis Bentz was a U.S. Marine to the core, his grieving father, Wayne, said Wednesday.
The 28-year-old served two tours of duty in Iraq, losing friends and suffering a head injury on his second tour. But he would have completed a third tour of duty without hesitation.
"He loved the Marines with all his being," said Wayne Bentz, whose son passed away Saturday.
Donald Bentz was living in Pass Christian at the time of his death. He was born in Gulfport, attended St. John through elementary school and graduated from Long Beach High School.
From a young age, he loved to hunt deer when one could still do so in DeLisle, and to catch drum and redfish off Coast piers.
While he was in high school, Bentz worked at Rosalie Station Car Wash.
"He was unlike most of the other kids that worked at Rosalie," his former boss wrote in an online remembrance. "He acted more mature and responsible." Bentz was, his former boss said, "a git 'er done" kind of guy.
At 17, he begged his father to sign him up for the Marines, but Wayne Bentz said he could not do it. His son joined at 18 and shipped off for training in California. He was with the first troops to enter Baghdad when the war started in 2003.
He was a member of the 4th Amphibious Assault Battalion from Gulfport. As a 26-year-old staff sergeant, he suffered a concussion from an improvised explosive device and was shipped to a German hospital in the summer of 2005. The next week, while he was still in Germany, two members of his battalion and 14 from an Ohio battalion were killed.
Wayne Bentz said his son regretted that he was not there to fight with his friends.
Bentz had one sister, Mindy Lee. He also is survived by his mother, Tammie Ladner Bentz.
Ellie
A Marine to the core
By ANITA LEE
calee@sunherald.com
-- Donald Louis Bentz was a U.S. Marine to the core, his grieving father, Wayne, said Wednesday.
The 28-year-old served two tours of duty in Iraq, losing friends and suffering a head injury on his second tour. But he would have completed a third tour of duty without hesitation.
"He loved the Marines with all his being," said Wayne Bentz, whose son passed away Saturday.
Donald Bentz was living in Pass Christian at the time of his death. He was born in Gulfport, attended St. John through elementary school and graduated from Long Beach High School.
From a young age, he loved to hunt deer when one could still do so in DeLisle, and to catch drum and redfish off Coast piers.
While he was in high school, Bentz worked at Rosalie Station Car Wash.
"He was unlike most of the other kids that worked at Rosalie," his former boss wrote in an online remembrance. "He acted more mature and responsible." Bentz was, his former boss said, "a git 'er done" kind of guy.
At 17, he begged his father to sign him up for the Marines, but Wayne Bentz said he could not do it. His son joined at 18 and shipped off for training in California. He was with the first troops to enter Baghdad when the war started in 2003.
He was a member of the 4th Amphibious Assault Battalion from Gulfport. As a 26-year-old staff sergeant, he suffered a concussion from an improvised explosive device and was shipped to a German hospital in the summer of 2005. The next week, while he was still in Germany, two members of his battalion and 14 from an Ohio battalion were killed.
Wayne Bentz said his son regretted that he was not there to fight with his friends.
Bentz had one sister, Mindy Lee. He also is survived by his mother, Tammie Ladner Bentz.
Ellie