Sgt. Benjamin Edinger, U.S.M.C. (KIA)

Green Bay Marine dies of Iraq wounds Benjamin Edinger had been injured Nov. 14

By Ray Barrington
News-Chronicle
A Green Bay Marine injured earlier this month in Iraq died Tuesday in a Maryland hospital. Sgt. Benjamin Edinger, 23, was wounded in Iraq on Nov. 14. His grandfather, Gerald Downey of Green Bay, said Edinger was injured by shrapnel from what the military calls an "improvised explosive device."

Edinger, a 1999 graduate of West High School, was taken to the Bethesda Naval Hospital and had recently been taken out of intensive care, but Downey said he suddenly took a turn for the worse.

"He was a really nice kid," said his grandmother, Barbara Downey, who said Edinger had not been sure what to do with his life after graduation.

"He spent a year in college and said he felt he was wasting the money," she said. Instead, he went to the Marines, but Downey said he had plans for the future.

"He had made up his mind that he wanted to come home and go to the University of Wisconsin and study to be a veterinarian," she said.

The Downeys said Edinger was in his second tour of duty in Iraq after being part of the initial invasion, where he was part of reconnaissance operations.

A friend of the family said Edinger's parents, Rose and Randy Scannell, were returning from Maryland Tuesday and would not have a comment until after they returned.

In a 2001 article in the Green Bay Press-Gazette, Edinger's parents talked of visiting their son, then a lance corporal stationed in Okinawa, Japan, just weeks after the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington.

"Right after we heard about the attacks in America, he sent us e-mails saying, 'I'm worried about you,' and we would send him a message back saying, 'We're so worried about you,'" Rose Scannell told the newspaper.

"He's stationed in Okinawa, Japan, and he received his training in Korea," she said. "One of the things we got from the U.S. Embassy said that there had been reports that terrorists had been planning to attack military installation personnel in Korea. I was a little stressed about that.

"Then I had to think about how going into the service, you say you may give your life to serve your country," she said. "I thought, 'That's his choice to do this.'"

At the time, Edinger was a small-computer systems specialist with the 3rd Force Service Support Group's Headquarters and Service Battalion.