One of their own

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, March 26th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: the cost of combat.

This month, the Department of Defense identified the seventh soldier killed as part of the war in Iran: 26-year-old Staff Sergeant Benjamin Pennington.

WORLD Reporter Travis Kircher traveled to the small Kentucky town where Pennington grew up—to find out how the community is coping.

SOUND: [Car starting]

TRAVIS KIRCHER: At the Hardin County Schools Early College and Career Center, automotive instructor Tom Pitt is doing what he does best. Solving problems. There’s the student who failed to appear in shop-appropriate footwear. One SUV with bad rear brakes and another with an error code. Something to do with the fuel mixture.

PITT: So it’s calculating lean, and it’s trying to compensate for that by putting more fuel…

Pitt’s job is to take students who don’t know which end of a screwdriver to use and turn them into grease monkeys.

PITT: I couldn't be a math teacher. Won't be a math teacher, history or anything like that. It's not due to lack of ability, but I do this because of the perception of the industry.

But lately Pitt’s been dealing with the fact that there are some problems he can’t solve. Like the ongoing war with Iran…the war that just claimed the life of one of his former students: Benjamin Pennington.

PITT: I met Ben Pennington, I guess, it was 2017 he was a student in my automotive pathway class.

Pitt remembers Pennington as smart, helpful and fun to be around.

PITT: He's one of those students who, and I use this analogy a lot, like an old weed eater. Real hard to get started, but once you, once you get them started, you can't, can't, kind of turn it off...you remember folks like him.

Pennington loved airplanes and the military, so Pitt says it’s no surprise he wound up joining the Army. Pennington stayed in touch with his old automotive instructor, occasionally sending him pictures of airplanes. But a couple of weeks ago, as he was leaving church, Pitt says he got a disturbing message from one of Pennington’s former classmates, asking Pitt to call him.

PITT: And so I did. I called Hayden, and he said, “Hey, you remember Ben, right?” And I knew right then it wasn't going to—that discussion was not going to go well…

Staff Sergeant Benjamin Pennington of the First Space Brigade at Fort Carson, Colorado, died on March 8th. His death came one week after he was injured during an Iranian attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The seventh U.S. casualty in Operation Epic Fury.

MICHAEL BELL: Ben has always just been a steady, good kid, you know, just he puts his mind to something, and he does it.

That’s Michael Bell, the executive pastor at Glendale Christian Church. He pastored Pennington as he was growing up in this tight knit community of roughly 2000.

BELL: This happens everywhere else. It doesn't happen here, and when it comes home, it really hurts.

Bell remembers Pennington as an ambitious teenager who intentionally set hard goals and accomplished them.

BELL: When Ben was working on his Eagle Scout program, he came and we talked, and his program was a project in the park. It was a very major project…

That project involved removing concrete dugouts, backstops, and light poles before turning the space into a walking area. Bell says he knew at once the endeavor would be too much for the teen and he told him so.

BELL: You don't tell him something's impossible, because he's going to do it. I told him the job for the Eagle Scout, I said, “that's too big of a job. Can we divide it?” “I'll get her done!” And he did.

Bell says he got the tragic news of Pennington’s deteriorating condition as he was announcing a girls basketball game at the local high school.

BELL: And his dad called and said things had gone south. I left the ball game and turned around, and we had a word of prayer over the phone. And when I got home from the ball game, his dad told me he passed.

Since then, Bell says he’s been thinking a lot about Pennington’s Eagle Scout project.

BELL: I went down yesterday and just sat and looked at it, at the park, and saw the accomplishments, and what a change. And then I thought, here's a young man from a small community. He loved military service. And he gave himself. It took his all.

SOUND: [Shop noise]

Meanwhile, back at Pitt’s shop:

PITT: We’re gutted. That’s it. Absolutely gutted.

And Pitt knows Pennington might not be the only one of his students who may be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice.

PITT: I'm thankful that folks will and frustrated that they must.

In the meantime, Pitt will continue to help his students do what they love doing most: fixing things. While he remembers the student who died doing what those around him say he loved most: serving his country.

PITT: It was part of his life. You could tell it was part of his life.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Travis Kircher. From Elizabethtown and Glendale, Kentucky.

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