TBS 2-67 Cruisebook_Updated_7Jan23

Jerry C Bennett
The Following was on the "Leave a Memory" website
Jerry C. Bennett
Frederick, Oklahoma, USA
U.S. Marine Corps
Captain, F Btry, 2nd Bn, 12th Marines, 3rd Mardiv, III
MAF
9/16/1967, Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam
Sir,
I happened to find your website by accident while
conducting research for a memorial project I am
putting together for a family member, Captain Jerry
Claude Bennett of Frederick Oklahoma. Capt Bennett
was an Artillery Officer with Foxtrot 2/12, 3rd Marine
Division in 1966­67. While assigned to Mike Company,
3rd Battalion 9th Marines at Con Thien, he along with
another young Marine, PFC Robert L. Gable of
Kylerton Pa, his radio operator, were killed by an NVA
106mm recoiless rocket shell while they were manning
OP­1. A third Marine, LCPL Harry Hutchinson, who
was on watch with Bennett and Gable was wounded by
the back blast from the same shell. Hutch’s picture was
taken by the famous war correspondent David Douglas
Duncan, while he was being treated in the Doc’s
hooch. The picture appeared in one of the Oct 1967
editions of LIFE magazine.
A few months back I became obsessed with the idea of
finding out as much information about Capt Bennett as
I could and decided to put together a memorial book as
a gift to his surviving family, especially one of his older
Jerry Claude Bennett
brother’s (my Father in Law). The hardest part has
been keeping this project a secret from him. Jerry was
born and raised in Frederick Oklahoma, a small town
in the Southwest part of the state not far from the Texas
border. Jerry came from a large family, mostly all boys,
and being the middle child in a lower middle class
family, well things were tough, but after talking with
some of his brothers, I think that just made Jerry want
to succeed in life even harder. Jerry graduated from
Frederick High School and went to college at
Southeastern Oklahoma State College, where after 4
years, he graduated with a degree in Business
management. I’m pretty sure that out of a sense of
patriotism, Jerry first enlisted in the Marines, but
applied to become a Marine officer.
After the usual military red tape, he was selected for, and
attended the 39th Officer Candidate Class at MCB
Quantico Virginia. After he graduated from OCS, he
came back home to Oklahoma and attended the Basic
Artillery Officers course at nearby Ft Sill. Like most
young people in the service, he soon had orders to
Vietnam. If I read his records correctly, shortly after
arriving in country, he was assigned to Foxtrot 2/12 in
early 1966, and served as an Artillery Forward
Observer for several Marine rifle companies out in the
“bush” in Quang Tri province area. He was wounded
in the leg by shrapnel in June 1967. and decorated with
a Purple Heart medal on 12 Sept, 1967. Four days
later, he was Killed in Action.
The last picture the family has of Jerry is of him
receiving the medal along with two other marines. I
have enclosed a picture of Jerry in his Marine Dress
Blue uniform. It is a bit faded, and I pray that it will be
sufficient for you to work with. I refuse to let Jerry’s
memory fade. I have looked in amazement at the
drawings you have done of all those wonderful people,
M‐4