Army Staff Sgt. Keith A. Bennett

Died December 11, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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32, of Holtwood, Pa.; assigned to the 28th Military Police Company, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, Johnstown, Pa.; killed Dec. 11 by a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device in Ramadi, Iraq.

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Pa. Guardsman killed in car bombing

Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania National Guardsman was killed Sunday when an explosives-packed car he had stopped from entering a military base blew up, officials said.

Sgt. Keith A. Bennett, 32, was working a checkpoint at a base near Ramadi when the vehicle tried to enter, in what officials called an attempt to kill dozens of Iraqi policemen and U.S. Marine Corps military police.

Bennett was walking toward the stopped vehicle when it detonated, National Guard officials said Tuesday.

Bennett, of Holtwood, joined the National Guard in 1997 because he thought the experience would enable him to fulfill his goal of becoming a state police trooper, said his sister, Tina Daley.

He was a full-time member of the National Guard — a military policeman who patrolled Fort Indiantown Gap — when he volunteered to go to Iraq, she said.

“He’s always been a hero,” she said. “I’m very proud of him. I’ll always be proud of him.”

Bennett, who was halfway through a yearlong deployment, was serving with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division. As a unit leader, Bennett had nine soldiers under him.

One of his subordinates, Sgt. Ben Claus, said Bennett often volunteered himself or the unit for extra time so that someone else could take an extra day off. In addition, he often brought extra equipment, anticipating that some of his fellow soldiers might forget something.

Claus and Daley described Bennett as a jokester who surprised his family in October when he arrived home for more than two weeks.

Bennett would not tell his sister about the danger in Iraq, and told her not to pay attention to the news of American servicemen killed in Iraq, she said.

“I never thought it would be him,” she said.

Bennett’s death brought the number of Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers killed in combat in Iraq to 22.