Marine Sgt. Benjamin K. Smith

Died September 22, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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24, of Carterville, Ill.; assigned to 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif.; killed Sept. 22 by enemy action in Anbar province, Iraq.

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Family says Carterville Marine killed in Iraq

Associated Press

CARTERVILLE, Ill. — A 24-year-old U.S. Marine from Carterville was killed in an explosion while serving his second tour of duty in Iraq, a family member said Sept. 23.

Sgt. Benjamin Smith, 24, a tank commander with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment headquartered in Twentynine Palms, Calif., died while working in Al-Anbar province, near the Syrian border, said Thomas “T.J.” Gentry, a cousin of Smith’s mother.

He described Smith as a “quiet, well-mannered” young man who had visited his southern Illinois home last year for a sister’s wedding before returning for his second tour in Iraq. He had been scheduled to return home Oct. 10, he said.

“He looked like a poster boy for the Marines,” Gentry said. “He had that hard jaw, that chiseled look.

“You get that bulletproof feeling that this could never happen, then it does.”

Carterville Mayor Bill Mausey asked residents to lower their flags to half-staff in memory of Smith.

Family members gathered Sept. 23 at the home of Smith’s parents, Jim and Kim Smith, and referred reporters’ calls to another relative, Robert Church.

Church, a former Marine, said Benjamin Smith had talked with him about his decision to volunteer for a second tour of duty while he home was on leave.

“The way he put it to me was that was where his country needed him most,” Church said, speaking from the Smiths’ home. “That’s where he was called upon to serve.”

Benjamin Smith, the eldest of three children, had been a place kicker for Carterville High School and loved country music and rodeos, Church said.

He also had a fianc© in California, Church said.

Church said when two uniformed Marines approached the Smith home Sept. 22, Kim Smith refused out of fear to let them inside. The family called Church to mediate.

“What mother wants to see two uniformed Marines walking up her driveway?” Church said. “No one wants to see that.