In Memoriam

[Grace]

#12


6 August 2011

28-year-old US Navy Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL) Darrik C. Benson, from Angwin, California, was killed in action on 6th August 2011 when the helicopter he was in was shot down by enemy forces in Wardak province, Afghanistan.

From the Daily Sentinel, Colorado -

Before he became a U.S. Navy SEAL, Darrik Benson was known as a good student and an all-around nice kid in Angwin, a small town in California's Napa Valley where he grew up.

At the end of his latest tour of duty next month, he planned to marry his girlfriend, Kara, and spend time with his 2-year-old son, Landon.

"She's very broken up about this," Benson's mother, Claudia Benson, told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

Benson had recently earned his commercial pilot's license to possibly fly airplanes after his military service ended.

Linda Hansel, who taught Benson in eighth grade, remembered him as bright, outgoing and just a touch mischievous.