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- The People Behind The Sacrifice
Army Spc. Scott M. Bandhold
Died April 12, 2006 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom
37, of North Merrick, N.Y.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; died April 12 of injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee during combat operations in Misiab, Iraq. Also killed was Pfc. Roland E. Calderon-Ascencio.
9/11 attacks inspired soldier’s enlistment
The Associated Press
NORTH MERRICK, N.Y. — A Long Island man who was inspired to join the Army at age 34 after watching the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks was killed this week when a roadside bomb detonated near his Humvee in Iraq.
Spc. Scott M. Bandhold, 37, was killed along with Pfc. Roland Calderon-Ascencio, 21, of Miami, on Wednesday in Misiab. Both men were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, in Fort Hood, Texas.
In a posting on a high school alumni Web site, he described how while in Portugal after his divorce, he watched the World Trade Center towers fall, Newsday reported in Saturday’s editions.
“In what seemed like slow motion, I watched as our Twin Towers crumbled to the ground,” he wrote. “I had to wait two years before I could join (divorce, legal fees, etc.) the Army ... I deploy in October.”
Joe Bandhold, a sergeant first class in the New York Army National Guard, told the newspaper his brother was driving an officer to a meeting when he and his colleague were killed.
After graduating from high school, Bandhold, who took dance lessons since he was 7, worked at Walt Disney World, then moved on to cruise ships and corporate events. Eventually, he took a job at a casino in Estoril, Portugal, where he met his future wife. They had two children, but divorced in 2001.
He joined the Army after realizing his bad knees would prevent him from continuing in show business, his brother said.
“I worried every day ... I know he was proud to be in the Army. He wasn’t afraid,” his father, Henry Bandhold, told the Daily News from his home in The Villages, Fla. “Sometimes I handle this okay. Other times I just fall apart.”
Funeral arrangements have not been finalized.