Jerry Claud Bennett
A great Marine, a wonderful person, a tribute to his nation in all respects. At home with God, remembered by all who knew him.
Posted by: Bill Cowan, USMC (Ret)
We had operated around Con Thien for a while before we actually had to go in and spend some time at the firebase. Jerry went in first and I was with a unit operating just to the east, in the field. About a month later, when I was sitting in a helicopter about to fly into Con Thien, Jerry ran up to the door of the chopper and yelled at me to stay away from an old French bunker on the north face. He was real serious. He had come a long ways, across our position, to tell me that. I stayed out of that old concrete bunker. This was a bad area in 1967. There were a lot of casualties. Lt. Doherty, who also knew Jerry, was killed in July. That morning, the 2nd, we took 85 KIAÆs in less than an hour. In September, Con Thien took a thousand rounds of artillery every day, the whole month. When Lieutenant Bennett was killed it was all a blur. So many guys had been killed, I was losing track. But when the word came down about Jerry, most of my friends just left me alone for a while. He was a fine man but, of course, you know that. IÆm happy to be able to give you this picture and to tell you that he had friends there. I
