A 24-year-old Texan based at Camp Pendleton became the latest Marine to die in combat in Afghanistan, it was reported Saturday.
Lance Cpl. Benjamin Whetstone Schmidt of San Antonio, killed Thursday in Helmand province, was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment.
Schmidt was the son of Dr. David Schmidt, an orthopedic surgeon and team doctor for the San Antonio Spurs basketball team. His mother, marriage and family therapist Becky Whetstone, is a former columnist for the San Antonio Express-News.
Schmidt was on his second deployment to Afghanistan and left Texas Christian University to enlist in the Marine Corps in 2008.
Before his most recent deployment, Schmidt told his family he wanted to be buried at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio if he was killed.
