Benjamin D. Rast
Navy Hospitalman, United States Navy
December 24, 1987 – April 6, 2011
Age – 23
Niles, MI
Operation Enduring Freedom
1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve, stationed at Naval Medical Center, Expeditionary Medical Force Detachment, San Diego, CA
Died while conducting dismounted patrol in Helmand Province, Afghanistan
Hospitalman Benjamin Rast, 23, of Niles, Mich., was killed April 6 while coming to the aid of another unit. Rast was deployed to Afghanistan with the 1/23rd Reserve Marines, the Houston-based Lone Star Battalion.
Benjamin Rast graduated from Brandywine High School and Lake Michigan College. A football and baseball player in school, Rast played with the Indiana Titans, a semipro football team before he enlisted in the Navy in 2009. He went to Field Medical Service School at Camp Pendleton, Calif., before reporting to the Marines.
An Air Force drone caused the April 6 deaths of a Marine reservist and Navy hospitalman in Afghanistan, NBC News reported. According to NBC News, Marine Staff Sgt. Jeremy Smith and Navy Hospitalman Benjamin Rast were killed after a Predator fired a Hellfire missile while conducting a dismounted patrol northeast of Patrol Base Alcatraz in Helmand province. Another Marine unit from Patrol Base Alcatraz became locked in a firefight with insurgents, and Rast’s unit was dispatched as backup. He was hit while moving toward other Marines who were under fire in Helmand province. But reports from the field indicate that the Marines who were under attack mistook Smith and Rast for militants heading their way and called in a strike from an Air Force Predator.
“I’m proud of Ben, extremely proud,” Robert Rast said. “But I have no official answers. Nothing. I need to know how he died.” He was unofficially told that his son and Marine Staff Sgt. Jeremy D. Smith of Arlington, Texas, were killed by a Hellfire missile from a remote-controlled drone aircraft.
“I saw him at Christmas, and we talked about enemy fire,” Rast recalled, but added that he’s now tormented by the thought of his son possibly dying from American action. “