Cranford, NJ -- Pfc. Stephen C. Benish enlisted in the Army specifically to go to Iraq, his mother recalled Tuesday.
He was deeply affected by 9/11, she said. Besides, he'd always wanted to be a firefighter, and the guys at the Cranford Fire Department, where Benish was a volunteer, told him that military service would give him a leg up.
Benish's unit, along with Iraqi troops, have been battling insurgents every day for weeks in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad. On Sunday morning, Benish was on foot patrol when he took a fatal enemy gunshot in the neck, between his body armor and his Kevlar helmet, Defense Department officials said.
He was the 30th soldier from New Jersey to die in Iraq. He was 20 years old.
On Tuesday, Candy Benish read from her son's last letter home: "Whenever it gets tough over here, we have an expression: 'Charlie Mike' - that means carry on your mission."
Steve Benish was born Feb. 3, 1984, in Rahway and grew up in Clark. He was "a great kid, always happy," said his mother, a legal secretary who lives in Waxhaw, N.C., with Steve's 18-year-old sister, Kelly.
"From the time he was 4 years old and heard his first firetruck, he wanted to be a firefighter," Candy Benish said.
Steve was a Boy Scout, rising to the rank of Star Scout. His favorite Scouting program was Fire Explorer, in which firefighters taught the boys to maintain equipment and brought them along on calls.
Benish eventually graduated from the Union County Fire Science Training Academy and joined the Cranford department as a volunteer "call man." Capt. Steve Patterson remembered him as "an outgoing kid, fun - and tall." So tall - 6 feet, 7 inches
