Come to his assistance, All you Saints of God...

Staff Sergeant Jason Benford

Kimberly & Jason Benford

I received this email on Tuesday and although I learned the name through a soldier, I couldn't post it Tuesday because the name had not been officially released to the media... And while a family blog may not qualify as "media", I prefer to respect the family and allow them time to grieve privately and contact family and friends before the name of their loved one is so publicly displayed. The emails from the Rear D with the special caption always take my breath away... we only receive these notices for someone in the Company -- the immediate family.

From the email:

On the 27th of September, I was notified by ... (3rd Brigade Rear-Detachment Commander) that our Battalion had suffered the loss of one of our heroes from A Company, 2-69 Armor. This hero was killed by a sniper while conducting combat operations.

The next of kin of our fallen hero has been notified.

3rd Brigade and 2-69 Armor Rear Detachments will conduct a Memorial Ceremony to honor this American Hero on Tuesday the 4th of October at 1100 hours at the Kelly Hill Chapel.

I ask for your prayers for this Panther hero and his family.

This hero was SSG Jason Benford. Our son "sat left seat" for the Sgt. on many occasions and was going to gun for SSG full time until our son was wounded... Noah said, "He was such a f*king awesome person, Ma... I wish you got to know him, especially like I did." I didn't know what else to say except, "Me, too, son. I know this is very hard for you... and I'm very sorry for the loss of another of your brothers." I wish there wasn't going to be another Memorial Service.

At 1:30 this morning, Noah called to say that he had just gotten off the phone with his good friend SPC R who called from Iraq as soon as the communications blackout had been lifted. The Guys wanted to be sure that Noah knew about their friend SSG Benford and R. shared some of the details of the incident with Noah. R. said the guys were just getting ready to go out big time... and Noah said how much he wanted to be there -- with his brothers. Noah then spent the next 20 minutes of our early morning conversation telling me a number of stories of the Sergeant -- how he'd tell them about how much he missed his wife and children... how he would dance around to the tunes on his mp3 player -- and how they'd all groan and laugh when he'd make them listen to hip hop... and how he'd always remind the Guys how pretty he was... how he could make them all laugh in the direst of situations... how much they liked him... how much they'd miss him...More From the Columbus GA paper and from the Department of Defense.

We ask for your prayers for this American hero and his family.

COME to his assistance, All you Saints of God! Meet him, you Angels of the Lord. Receive his soul, and present it to the Most High. May Christ who called you, receive you; and may the Angels lead you into the bosom of Abraham. Eternal rest grant to him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May the souls of the faithfully departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.

Into your hands, O Lord, we humbly entrust our brother. In this life you embraced him with your tender love; deliver him now from every evil and bid him enter eternal rest.

The old order has passed away: welcome him then into paradise, where there will be no sorrow, no weeping nor pain, but the fullness of peace and joy with your Son and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever.

Amen.

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