Staff Sgt. Benjamin D. Williams
U.S. Marine Corps 03/15/76-06/20/06 Orange, TX Staff Sergeant Benjamin DeWayne Williams, United States Marine, was a true patriot. He was from Orange, Texas, and on his third and last deployment. He was set to return home on August 15. He had plans to surprise his mother. But before that could happen, he was killed on June 20 fighting the enemy forces in Al Anbar, Iraq. Ben Williams was 30 years of age. His friends said he loved being a Marine. He went to Little Cypress Mauriceville High School and played football, and as soon as he graduated from high school, he joined the United States Marine Corps. He was a staff sergeant in the Marines and an infantry unit leader assigned to the First Battalion, First Marine Regiment, First Marine Division of the First Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, California. His sacrifice gives true meaning to the Vietnam era phrase ``All gave some…Some gave all.'' Sergeant Williams gave all, dying for the rest of us. It was his devotion that thrust him into battle with his eyes wide open. He knew that there was a chance he wouldn't come home. His level of devotion meant giving himself after giving his all. His life is the cost of freedom, a freedom and an expense that he embraced proudly. Every member of the military we remember is described as someone who loved his country, a soldier to the bone who believed in what they were doing. We call ourselves patriots, but few of us have the scars to prove it. Few have the courage to face and embrace the darkest unknown, the possibility of not going home. These few, these volunteers, are a rich testament to the courage they have in their hearts. Now and always we must remember their sacrifice, our men and women who fight, so we can look in the blue skies of liberty and remember them with the flying of every star and every stripe.