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August 11, 2005
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| Sgt. 1st Class Michael Benson, shown here in a 2003 Army newsletter photo, died Wednesday of injuries he suffered in a bombing in Iraq on Aug. 2. Benson grew up in Winona. (Photo courtesy of First U.S. Army) |
St. Paul, Minn. — (AP) - A Winona native died after being injured in a suicide bombing in Baghdad, his brother said Thursday.
Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael Benson, 40, was riding in a Humvee on Aug. 2 when it was struck by a bomb, said his brother, David Benson of Winona. He said the information was passed on by the U.S. Army.
"There was no operation going on, it was just a routine day of activity," Benson told The Associated Press. "Basically it was, from everything we know, it was a suicide bomb attack."
Benson said the family at this point has few other details of the attack.
Michael Benson suffered massive head injuries and was transported first to a military hospital in Germany and, on Sunday, the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. He died there early Wednesday, David Benson said.
He is the 25th Minnesotan to die as a result of injuries sustained in the Mideast during the Iraq war.
Michael Benson grew up in Winona, graduating from Winona High School in 1983. He joined the Army a few years later and has made a career out of it.
"He's lived all over the world," his brother said, including a stint in Iraq during the first Gulf War. "He took his assignment over there very seriously."
Michael Benson was with an Army training unit based in Fort Drum, New York. They had been in Iraq since Easter and were there training Iraqi police officers, David Benson said.
Fort Drum officials said Thursday they were not yet able to release information on Michael Benson.
Benson is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Benson, who lives in the Fort Drum area, his brother said. His mother, Norma Benson, and two brothers live in Winona, while another brother lives in the Twin Cities, David Benson said.
Norma Benson said she was expecting the fateful call. She told the Winona Daily News she got a telephone call Tuesday from her son's doctor.
"The doctor called and said there's no way he's going to survive this brain injury," she said.
She had been dreading the possibility of her son dying since he joined the Army nearly 20 years ago.
"He's been in other war situations and he'd tell you about it afterwards, and you'd sit there with eyes wide open," she said.
For example, she said that during the first Gulf War her son cleared mines in northern Iraq. "They had to explode the bombs at noon every day because that was the only way the Army would know it wasn't an enemy attack," Benson said.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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