Classmates of late Marine honor his service at new Oswego Veterans Serenity Park

Tony Benitez, Oswego High School Class of 1987, will be in Auburn, Alabama, when Veterans Serenity Park is dedicated Nov. 10 in downtown Oswego.

But his thoughts will be in Oswego. He’ll be thinking of his pal Mike Thompson, a fellow ’87 OHS graduate, who won’t be present at the event, either. Thanks to the coming together of fellow graduates, a memorial bench is being dedicated to Thompson, a Marine who died several years after serving in Operation Desert Storm.

“Mike and I were on the wrestling team together,” Benitez said. “We grew up in the same neighborhood and were classmates from elementary through high school.

“Mike was a very loyal friend. He had traits you look for in people: selflessness, kindness. He was a ‘give you the shirt off his back’ kind of guy. He was very honorable in his actions and the way he lived his life. Wrestling takes a lot of discipline and sacrifice and there’s selflessness in that, as well. You’re not bigger than the team, and I think Mike carried that over into his life after high school. One of the reasons he joined the Marines was because of what he experienced as being part of the wrestling team.”

Benitez, who graduated from West Point in 1991 then was commissioned as an officer in the Army, served his country for a little longer than 22 years. He is now retired and serving as a Junior ROTC instructor at Auburn High School. The Class of 1987 bought decorative bricks for class members who served in the Armed Forces, so Benitez’ name is on one of them.

The organizer behind both the bench and the bricks is David Edelman, another 1987 OHS grad.

“We thought this was a good thing to do to remember Mike,” Edelman said. “We need to remember him and honor him for his service and let his family know we didn’t forget about him. When we [1987 graduates] saw the plans for the park, we were talking about it and thought it would be a good thing to do.”

Edelman reached out to class members on social media to raise the $1,750 for the bench and $100 for each brick to honor those who served. Edelman said the fundraising was “a total class effort.”

Edelman remembers Thompson as being a “very well-dressed man” in high school. “He wore a coat and tie a lot. He was respectful and commanded respect. He wasn’t big, but his personality was the size of the gymnasium. He was always very jovial and outgoing. You knew when Mike was around.”

Although Edelman will be out of the country during the grand opening and dedication of the park, Thompson’s wrestling buddy Patrick Behnke will make the trek from St. Louis.

Behnke served a three-year stint in the Army and was called up again during Desert Storm. He and Thompson communicated through letters during that time. It was the last time he would hear from his good friend.

“Mike and I and a couple other friends – Mike Coleman and Rob Baxley – got into a lot of mayhem with extra amounts of foolishness,” Behnke said. “He was always there if you needed him. He was a little guy, but outwardly, at least, was not afraid of anybody. Because he was little, when we were out riding our bikes in junior high, if anyone was down a bike he would sit on the handlebars because he was the shortest guy.

“He was a good wrestler who worked really hard in practice. When he went out there, we knew we had a good chance of winning the match.

“He was in the Marines. He went to Desert Storm. He went across the desert. ... he’s an American hero. He answered the call and went over. He was a good friend: funny, crazy, loyal. In the end, he was a hero to me.”

Thompson’s parents, Bobbi and Dean, who now live in Iowa, are looking forward to the park’s grand opening and dedication and seeing the bench their son’s classmates bought.

Bobbi said her son passed away of pneumonia at 28 on Sept. 2, 1997. “He was in Desert Storm first, and Saudi Arabia and then Kuwait. He ended up in some city in Iraq. He called home from Iraq and I had no idea where he was.”

Thompson enlisted in 1987 and got out in 1991, Bobbi said. After he returned to Illinois, he attended the University of Illinois at Chicago. He studied philosophy while earning degrees in economics and accounting and maintaining a 3.68 GPA. He worked a paid internship with Pete Marwick as a corporate researcher during his junior year. After graduating in 1997, he was hired by Arthur Andersen, but he died only six weeks after starting there, his mom said.

“We really lost a special kid and continue to feel a deep sense of loss. He was loved by his brothers and sister, and he would always challenge them to shoot for the stars and to never, ever give up on those Cubs.

“With his personality, he could be a friend to anyone. He was a friend to the least affluent kid in school and to some of the most affluent kids. One of his Marine Corps friends said Mike could be the toughest man, but yet had the biggest heart.

“As a mom, you go through certain things with your kids, but I’m glad to know how he treated other people.”

Thompson never married. He had a sister, Beth, and three brothers: Jeff, Chris and Eric.

Francine Bazos, another 1987 OHS grad, teamed up with Edelman on the project.

“I met Mike freshman year. We started becoming close because I was a cheerleader for wrestling,” Bazos said. “We were very close all through high school. I went to college in California, so I would go to Camp Pendleton while he was there in basic training.

“He was utterly honest. He was exceptionally smart, but he could also hang with the tough crowd. He was a straight-A student. He taught me how to play air guitar. We listened to Iron Maiden and he taught me the words to all these songs. Everyone thought we were a couple, but we weren’t. We were each other’s backup plan.

“We would kid each other about that and he would say, ‘One day your last name could be Thompson.’”

Bazos said she and Thompson lost touch after he returned from the Marines. “I was having babies and it was craziness and I remember one day my girlfriend called to tell me [Mike had died],” and I was in complete shock. I think Mike would have been very, very successful while living a very modest lifestyle.”

As for how her friend would view the memorial bench, Bazos said she thought Thompson “would be making fun of us. I think he would say he didn’t deserve it.”

Seven 1987 OHS graduates have their names engraved on bricks to thank them for their service. They are:

• Cory Johnson: FC3, U.S. Navy

• Lt. Col. Tony Benitez: U.S. Army, West Point Class of 1991

• Cpl. Michael Thompson: U.S. Marine Corps

• Sgt. Kathy Doonan: U.S. Army

• John Cubit: E-4 Specialist, U.S. Army

• Cpl. Robert L. Graham: U.S. Marine Corps

• Patrick A. Behnke: U.S. Army

Other bench sponsors are Hett’s Auto Sales, Kay and Steve Hatcher, Ron and Bev Bennett, Vic Mategrano, Joe and Lori West, Girl Scout Troop 1430, Bob and Sue Pannozo, Lisa Wirtz, Montgomery VFW Auxiliary 7452 and James Meek, said Dave Krahn, chairman of the Veterans Serenity Park Committee.

Krahn said the 11 benches are spread throughout the park. Forty-Seven bricks have been purchased. They will be to the left of the park’s water feature. “We don’t want anyone walking on them,” Krahn said. “They are not part of the path.”