In Memory of PFC Steven Henry Bennefeld.
*** There is a military stone in his honor at Zion Cemetery in Barzilton, KS.
*** Private First Class Bennefeld was a member of Company G, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division. On July 29, 1967, he was killed by small arms fire while fighting in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.


You may be gone, no longer living on this earth; but you will live on - in the memories of your family and friends. There will always be a part of you living in those who knew you. You will live on because we remember you!


STEVEN HENRY BENNEFELD - Marine Corps - PFC - E2
Age: 19
Race: Caucasian
Date of Birth Dec 24, 1947
From: GIRARD, KS
Religion: PROTESTANT
Marital Status: Single - Parents: Father, Henry N. Bennefeld and Mother, Esther, M. Bennefeld, both from Girard, Kansas. Brother Randy and a sister, Donna.

***** Helen Farar - cousin
Walnut, ks., Mother and father, Henry & Esther ( May 25, 1922 - Death: Feb. 24, 2003 ), an older sister, Donna and a younger, brother Randy, 8, Aunt's & Uncle's & 26, cousins, on the Bennefeld side, of his family. We will, never forget you.
Love always, HelenAnn



Length of service 0 years
His tour began on Jul 29, 1967
Casualty was on Jul 29, 1967
In QUANG TRI, SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY
GUN, SMALL ARMS FIRE

Body was not recovered
Panel 24E - Line 15


31 Marines died in the fighting:
C Co, 3rd Antitank Bn - 3 dead
C Co, 3rd Eng Bn - 3 dead
E Co, 2nd Bn, 9th Marines - 9 dead
F Co, 2nd Bn, 9th Marines - 6 dead
G Co, 2nd Bn, 9th Marines - 5 dead
H Co, 2nd Bn, 9th Marines - 2 dead
H&S Co, 2nd Bn, 9th Marines - 3 dead

On July 29,1967, the Marines found the enemy at Thon Cam Son. Pfc Bennefeld was with Golf 2/9.

Other members of the company saw PFC Bennefeld stand upright in the face of heavy enemy gunfire in order to better take the attack to the enemy.

According to these witnesses, Bennefeld was brought down by small arms fire, apparently hit in the upper torso. His unit was forced to withdraw until reinforcements arrived.

When the Marines cleared the battlefield, Steven Bennefeld was not found.

PFC Bennefeld's remains have never been found.


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The Girard Press (Girard, Kansas)
Special Edition, "The Vietnam Moving Wall Memorial"

Girard's Bennefeld family reflects on lost son
By: John Spurling
A memorial service for Steve was held August 13, 1967 at the Trinity Lutheran Church, Girard. Steve was born December 24, 1947 in Girard. Baptized March 28, 1948, in Zion Lutheran Church,Brazilton. Confirmed in Trinity Lutheran Church, Girard, May 20, 1962. Graduated from Girard High school 1966. Enlisted in Marine Corps, September 8, 1966.
He played basketball in High School. Steve was granted furlough and came home to be with his family at Christmas time in 1966. It was the last time the family saw him.
It was a very sad day indeed when two military men knocked on the door of the Bennefeld home. They informed Steve's Mother, Esther, who was home alone at the time that her son had been killed on July 29th. Left behind to mourn his death were his parents, brother Randy and a sister Donna.
Steve's letters from "Nam" have been placed In a special box and kept as a memento. The box of letters is a special bond of love between them that cannot be broken. Each letter is a personal gift and testimony of faith and love for his family. Steve, in his letters home was very proud to be given the opportunity to serve his country. He apparently had no regrets for all the rioting and protesting transpiring on the home front. Even though him and his buddies had no support from some of his fellow Americans he never lost faith.

A stone for Steve has been placed in the Brazilton Lutheran Cemetery. Beside Steve's name on the wall is a small pound sign which tells the world he is still missing and the odds of being found now are very remote. As the Bennefeld family, for the first time stands before the black wall, their fingers tracing softly over the name of their son, the memories of life could once again flood across the meadows of their mind.

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A Letter From "Nam"
This letter, in part, from PFC Steven Bennefeld to his parents, Henry and Esther Bennefeld, 315 W Walnut, Girard was written July 17th 1967. Just 12 days later, July 19th, Steve was apparently killed by enemy gun fire in the
vicinity of Quang Tri, Republic Of Vietnam. His body was never recovered.
"July 17th, Viet Nam
Mom & Dad

Hi! Steve How's everything? Well here it is another day. Today is Sunday believe it or not, usually Sunday slips by without me realizing what day it is. I even attended Services today, first Church Services I've gone to for quite awhile. Usually we are in the field or to busy to go. Sure be glad to get back to the states and attend regular church. How's everything around our church lately, any new members? Tomorrow we, are supposed to move again but none knows where to go, so we might stay here awhile. Tomorrow will tell.

So Shane had a birthday. He's a Big 2 years old. I sure wish I could see him, I bet he's a living Doll. He won't even know me when I get home. Is anyone building any new businesses or building around town.

Well it's getting dark so guess I'll close.
Love
Your Son,
Steve

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By NEAL McCHRISTY Morning Sun Staff Writer
The letter has the faded blue figures of Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima in one corner. Scrawled across the paper, a 10 year-old Marine wrote his parents in Girard:
"When I get out of the Marines in two and one-half years, I'm going on my own, I think. You have another important job -- that's to raise another son. "Randy is only in the seventh grade, but that's just the age that he starts checking out everything, so if you are the same to him as you were to me, I'd be pleased. My chief desire is to have a brother that I can be proud of."

Steven H. Bennefeld, a youth called "polar bear" in the U.S. Marines for his blond crown of hair, wrote that letter 20 days from being shipped to Vietnam. It was a letter that his mother, Esther, read, but she kept it folded in safekeeping for over 25 years until recently. The young Marine was reported missing in action July 29, 1967. His mother knew, she said, before she got word about Steve. She didn't want to share how.
Henry "Dick" Bennefeld, Steve's father, says attending the ceremonies will be difficult. Although they've learned to live with the loss of their son, it will always hurt, Esther says.

The Girard couple flips through the album that contains the mementoes of their son.
-He's a tow-headed youngster on the front step at their rural Healer home. He had scarlet fever when less than 2 years old, Esther said. His sister, Debra, died of leukemia in 1957, when Steve was about 10.
- The family moved to Girard in 1956. A teenager as his older sister, Donna, is graduating in one photograph. Steve followed her two years later in 1966.
- The last page, much of the bottom of it blank. There's a photograph of the Christmas visit of the tall, lanky Marine to his home to see his family. In the middle is his younger brother, Randy, who now works at Wal-Mart in Pittsburg.

Among the half-page collage, there's a photo of Steven, 6' 3", sitting atop a sandbag bunker emplacement with the everpresent bright smile on the tanned young face below the blond hair. Another shows him in uniform. Unlike many
of the other photos, he has an uncharacteristic serious look.

Military family
Steve had the loyalty that the Marine motto, "Semper Fidelis" ("always faithful") encourages in its ranks. It was in the family. The elder Bennefeld was also in the service in the South Pacific during World War 11, and Esther and Henry were married in 1945.

They found out about the battle that killed their son, in time. It came through an unlikely visit from another person in his company. Initially the messenger of what happened, Larry Beena, Normal, Ill., "was afraid to come to our door," said Esther.

Beena told the Bennefelds that Steve had stood up during a battle, saying he was going to take on the enemy himself, and had been killed. Said Esther: "That sounds like him."
Beena was wounded, shot and taken to Okinawa to recuperate after, the battle, a lone survivor of the company. He's been back to visit the Bennefelds twice since they initially met.

Since Esther knew that the tribute to their son was approaching, she took out the letters she had not read for almost 27 years. She unfolded them again to read the haunting words written miles and years away. "I got about
six or eight letters from Steve," she said. "Believe it or not, they hadn't been read in all these years." It has helped, she said, "to read a few letters, and I think that's good."

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Class tribute
There will be a tribute to Steven H. Bennefeld Sunday, April 17, by his Girard High School classmates in the class of '66. Phil Umphenour, a Vietnam veteran from Joplin, will bring his experiences to the ceremony and
has helped with Steve's eulogy.
The class will place a grapevine wreath with the school colors and a photo of Steve, she said, which as with all the artifacts, is transported to a special museum in San Jose, Calif.
Like the Bennefelds, who carry around images in their hearts of their son, his classmates do, too. Steve was "a neat kid," said Vietti. "He was on the basketball team and was the center on the team." "Tall, blond and lanky and full of fun," Breneman said. "He always had a smile and was just a good kid."
"The only one I've seen is this 'Moving Wall,"' said Larry Salzman, Girard, who is the commander of the Steven H. Bennefeld VFW Post No. 7479. "I don't know. It just kind of captures you."
And the young Marine who died in Vietnam that July in 1967 has a lot to do with the local community involvement.

"A lot of it is probably because of the Bennefelds and Steve," Salzman said. "This is the first time that anybody had a chance to do anything for Steve."

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