In Military Service, Marine 'Had Found His Calling'

Athlete, Hunter Was Devoted to Family

Master Sgt. Adam F. Benjamin was buried Thursday with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery, where more than 200 relatives, friends and service members recalled him as a humble, down-to-earth man and a devoted Marine.

"He had found his calling," said Mark Russo, who met Benjamin in elementary school in Garfield Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. "He loved what he was doing."

Benjamin, 34, was killed Aug. 18 in Afghanistan in the course of supporting combat operations in Helmand province, where he had been deployed in July. He had also been deployed twice to Iraq, in 2007 and last year, and had received the Navy and Marine Corps commendation and achievement medals.

Under blustery skies, the "President's Own" United States Marine Band led a procession to his grave site that included a horse-drawn carriage bearing his remains. Seven Marines fired three shots each.

Benjamin was an athlete who grew up riding in-line skates, playing soccer and riding BMX bikes, and he was a hunter fascinated by guns, ammunition and explosions. He enlisted in the Marines immediately after graduating from high school and became a bomb disposal technician.

"Adam was always the guy who was trying to blow something up," said Russo, 34, who graduated with Benjamin in 1993 from Garfield Heights High School. "He always had a lighter in his pocket, always had firecrackers. He was known for that."

Benjamin served for 16 years. He never married and did not have children.

"I love my job," he wrote on his MySpace page. "How many of you can say that you are right where you want to be at this point in your life? I know I can."

Russo said Benjamin, based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and assigned to the 8th Engineer Support Battalion, made a point to spend time with friends and family, including his mother, Judy Watters, and father, Frank Benjamin, each of whom was presented with a folded American flag at the cemetery Thursday.

The Marine's uncle Mark Benjamin told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that his nephew had 10 siblings and played with them when he was home.

"He would always hide in the house and ambush them," he told the Plain Dealer. "He was a big kid."

Last month, a motorcade bearing Benjamin's body made its way through the streets of Garfield Heights, where family members and friends celebrated Benjamin's life at a standing-room-only funeral. Russo, a middle school music teacher, played taps. "It is the least I could do for one of my good friends," he said.

Benjamin was one of 51 American troops killed in Afghanistan last month, making it the deadliest month in the eight-year war. He was the second service member from Garfield Heights who recently died overseas. In April, Army Cpl. Brad A. Davis, 21, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq.