Sgt. Michael E. Bitz, U.S.M.C (KIA)

(reprinted from the L. A. Times, March 26, 2003)

Sgt. Michael Bitz, 2nd Assault Amphibious Battalion, 2nd Marine Division

In the last year, it looked as if Michael Bitz was on a track other men would envy.

He had renewed his vows with his wife, Janina, and the couple were expecting twins. A sergeant in the Marines, he loved his job so much that he reenlisted last fall. At 31, he was entering his prime -- a reckless, rootless kid turned responsible father of four and career military man.

On Tuesday, his mother reminisced about him as a single candle burned on the dining-room table in her Ventura home. In their last telephone call, he told his mom how much he loved her. In his last letter to her, he said he was her warrior.

Donna Bellman's home was awash in television crews and sympathetic neighbors. A wreath of red, white and blue ribbon hung on the door.

Bellman was tired and drawn but eager to talk about the son she would never again see and the month-old twins he never got to hold.

"Caleb and Taylor," she said, her voice trailing off. "He had to ship out about six weeks before they were born."

On Monday, Bellman was called home from her office job at a car-alarm company. Three officers from the naval base at Point Mugu stood at the doorway in uniform, the classic grouping for the worst possible news in wartime.

"He'd been overseas before, but this time, I just didn't have a good feeling," she said, her eyes brimming. "I always tried to picture him surrounded by a white light to protect him. But when it's your time, nothing's going to work."

Divorced when her son was young, Bellman was a single mother while son Michael grew up in Port Hueneme. He was always a daredevil, she said, climbing the highest rocks to dive into the shallowest pools he could find on family camping trips.

"The more dangerous, the better," Bellman recalled. "He scared me half to death."

As a boy, he was protector and confessor for his younger brother, Steven.

"You never saw one without the other," their mother said. "I used to get upset because Michael always talked for Steven, and I was trying to get Steven to talk for himself."

After graduating from Hueneme High School, Bitz drifted from job to job, rudderless. He tried studying to become a paramedic but didn't get far.

"He lacked conviction," his mother said. "He had no discipline or direction."

With her oldest son, Rob, doing well in the Navy, Bellman convinced Michael that it was time to take life more seriously with a stint in the Marines.

"He nearly broke down when he called me from boot camp a couple of times," she said. "But I encouraged him and he stuck it out."

At the commencement ceremony in 1995, he gave her a bone-crushing hug, filled with conviction. Marine-style, he continually called his mother "ma'am" and proceeded down his new path with enough forcefulness to make sergeant in the 2nd Assault Amphibious Battalion, 2nd Marine Division.

Along the way, he had a boy from his first marriage, Christian, who is now nearly 7 and lives with his mother. Two-year-old Joshua and the twins live with Janina on Bitz's home base of Camp Lejeune.

"At times he was very loving and at times he was very macho," she said. "But he was always 100% Marine."

(reprinted from the Ventura County Star)

Local Marine most recent war casualty

By Tamara Koehler, tkoehler@insidevc.com
March 24, 2003

U.S. Marine Sgt. Michael E. Bitz, a Hueneme High School graduate and father of four, including twins he never saw, was shot and killed in Iraq during a recent skirmish with enemy soldiers.

Military officials from Naval Base Ventura County on Monday morning informed Bitz's mother, Donna Bellman, of her son's death. They provided few details, and Bellman is waiting to learn exactly where, how and when her 31-year-old son died.

"All they could tell me is that he was leading his troop into some kind of compound when he was shot," Bellman said.

Bitz was a member of the 2nd Amphibious Battalion in the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade. He was stationed in Bahrain for eight months a few years ago. She never worried about him during that stint, she said.

But this time was different, she said. This time it was war.

"I knew. I knew all along something wasn't right. I had this terrible feeling since he shipped out in January ... I kept trying to picture a white bubble around him to keep him safe.

"But it didn't work. In the last few days, I had this terrible feeling. He had to have been one of the first ones killed."

His wife, Janina, is in North Carolina near Camp Lejeune, where Bitz was stationed before heading overseas. Military officials were trying to reach her Monday, Bellman said.

A month ago, Janina Bitz gave birth to twins. Her husband never saw them. He shipped out Jan. 12 more than a month before they were born. His other children are 2 and 7.

Bitz graduated from Hueneme High School in 1989 but drifted from job to job for several years. Finally, his mother stepped in and encouraged him to join the service.

"He was directionless, and I thought the military could help him find himself," she said.

He took her advice and enlisted with the Marines in 1995.

"He went from a skinny kid to a big, muscular man," Bellman said. "He loved the service. He found direction and purpose in his life."

Bitz's 7-year-old son, Christian, lives in Ventura with Bitz's former wife. Bellman called the boy to tell him his father had been killed.

"I don't know how well he understood that," Bellman said.

She took Christian to visit his father at Christmas -- the last time either would see him. It was a good visit, she said, full of hugs and pride in her son.

For a time after shipping out, Bitz kept in touch with Bellman through e-mail, but those ended just before the war started. She smiles when she recites his last e-mail: "He told me he was my warrior. And he told me he loved me."

Bellman said in the coming days her son's body will be shipped back to North Carolina, where he will most likely be buried.

"He died doing a good deed and a good job," she said. "He believed he was helping to liberate people. He believed he was fighting for their freedom, for our freedom."