When Mario DiBenedetto was getting ready to graduate from North Bergen High School, he had a dream of eventually becoming an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
He was thrilled when former FBI director Louis Freeh, a North Bergen native, came to speak at the high school during DiBenedetto’s senior year. DiBenedetto actually kept a personal signed letter from Freeh in his room, along with several pictures of the former FBI director, as an inspiration.
When terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in September of DiBenedetto’s final year of high school, his dreams were put temporarily on hold.
“After Sept. 11, I felt the need to do something,” Mario DiBenedetto said. “I wanted to enlist in the Army.”
His father, Frank, an inspector with the North Bergen Department of Health, was against the idea.
“I tried to talk him out of it,” Frank DiBenedetto said. “I felt he should go to college first. But he was strong-minded about it. His mother and he voted for it. I voted against it. The democracy ruled. He went.”
“I think what happened on Sept. 11 really impacted me and drove me toward this choice,” Mario DiBenedetto said. “If it didn’t happen, I probably would have been thinking about the military as a means to an end. I figured the best way to get to my dream was through the military.”
DiBenedetto said that he spoke with the brother of Louis Freeh, who encouraged DiBenedetto to join the military. “He figured it was the best way and figured that I should get involved with military intelligence,” DiBenedetto said. “It was a good way to go.”
Off to the Army
So in July of 2002, just a few weeks after graduation from high school, a 17-year-old Mario DiBenedetto received written permission – and a blessing – from his father. He was off to join the U.S. States Army.
He was first sent to do basic training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, then was transferred to begin his military intelligence training at Fort Campbell in Kentucky.
“At that time, I didn’t expect a long-term war,” DiBenedetto said.
DiBenedetto learned quickly. He graduated first in his class in military intelligence and was stationed with the 101st Airborne Division of the Army.
He was at Fort Campbell about a month or so when word broke through the ranks that President Bush was set to declare war on Iraq.
“I really didn’t know much about the news then, because I was busy with my work,” DiBenedetto said. “When President Bush gave the Iraqi people a certain date, that’s when I started to get nervous, wondering what was going to happen next.”
DiBenedetto knew that the 101st Airborne was one of the most experienced divisions in the Army and had just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. So he was prepared to go.
“I heard on CNN that the deployment orders were sent out,” DiBenedetto said. “Two days later, we were going.”
Frank DiBenedetto had an inkling his son was being shipped to Iraq three weeks earlier.
“I went to visit him and they had just given him the smallpox vaccine,” Frank DiBenedetto said. “So that’s when I knew he was being deployed.”
DiBenedetto was shipped, first to Kuwait, then into the battle front. On March 27, 2003, DiBenedetto said they crossed the border into Iraq in time for the Battle of Najaf.
“Everywhere you looked, there was some sort of wreckage,” DiBenedetto said. “There were blown-up trucks and the occasional blown-up tank. There were also dead soldiers.”
It didn’t take long for DiBenedetto to get introduced to battle fire.
“During the first few days in Najaf, I heard the mortar fire going on over my head,” said DiBenedetto, who was assigned as a gunner in the Humvee that they traveled in. “You’d get scared at night, because you didn’t know where it was coming from. You’d also hear the sporadic gun fire.”
DiBenedetto said that he saw as many as 60 American casualties, but they weren’t from his direct division. He did say that he met Captain Christopher Seifert of the 101st Airborne, who was eventually killed by his own man, Sgt. Hasan Akbar, when Akbar threw a grenade into the camp.
“Most of the casualties were with the field artillery and infantry,” DiBenedetto said. “Although I did only intelligence work, I did see the front lines.”
Back home
Back home, Frank DiBenedetto watched the news every night – and prayed.
“I was watching the NCAA Tournament on TV, when they said there was a grenade attack in the camp of the 101st Airborne,” Frank DiBenedetto said. “You can’t imagine what goes through your mind. It was like an apple went into my throat, until I knew Mario was alright. It was nerve wracking. I relied upon Geraldo Rivera [reporting for Fox News] a lot, because he was with the 101st Airborne.”
DiBenedetto didn’t want to divulge the extent of his intelligence work, but he said that he was sent to the battle lines to do surveying.
“It was really like a Vietnam-era type job,” DiBenedetto said. “I did security for other intelligence.”
DiBenedetto’s group traveled through Baghdad and Cabala and during his journey, he witnessed some serious events.
“I did see one of the mass graves,” DiBenedetto said. “I smelled it. It wasn’t pretty. It was engulfing. I knew it was there and what it was.”
One night, DiBenedetto saw his life flash before his eyes.
“There were snipers guarding an Iraqi barracks, but I went beyond where the snipers were, because I wanted to go across the street and get a pillow,” DiBenedetto said. “Most of the time, you would sleep in the Humvee or on a sandbag or something, but there was a place where they had supplies like blankets and pillows. As I went across the street, I heard the shots being fired at me.”
Throughout his tenure, DiBenedetto felt like he was there to do a job.
“I never got into the politics of why were there,” DiBenedetto said. “It was my job. I had to do what the Commander-in-Chief told us to do. How I personally felt didn’t matter. If he [President Bush] said that they needed help in the Middle East, then so be it. It wasn’t my decision.”
DiBenedetto said that he made friends with some Iraqis, but most residents wanted the American army to leave as soon as Saddam Hussein fell.
“One Iraqi teenager in a bad section of the country came to me and said, ‘Why are you here? We don’t need your help,’ ” DiBenedetto said. “It was confusing, mixed emotions, a lot of highs and lows. There were some people who did consider us as liberators. They were bowing down to us, kissing our hands, hugging us. Then, it felt like we were doing the right thing. But after a while, it lost that aura and there were so many people who hate you so much.”
DiBenedetto said that it was tough, basically living out of a Humvee with no running water and toilet facilities for 11 months, with temperatures reaching 130 degrees every day.
“People tend to take for granted what we have here,” DiBenedetto said. “We had no showers, no toilets. Hell, in some instances, we didn’t even have a door.”
For the year while Mario was in Iraq, contact back home was limited. His mother was part of an e-mail chain system, with mothers of the soldiers passing on bits of information.
“It was always tense,” Frank DiBenedetto said. “Not knowing was worse than knowing.”
Three weeks ago, DiBenedetto earned his right to come home. His tour of duty was done.
“Eleven months and two weeks,” DiBenedetto said. “They gave me the extra two weeks served to make it a year.”
He spent a week in Fort Campbell, then returned to his North Bergen home for the first time since July of 2002 last Tuesday, where he was greeted by friends and family.
“When I hit Fort Campbell, I was extremely overjoyed,” DiBenedetto said. “Then, when I got home, it was definitely a good feeling. It was definitely an experience that I will never forget. Unless you’ve been through a war and you know how things work, then you have no idea what it’s like. Sleeping on boxes, getting rained on, after a while, you have to develop your own sense of humor and a sense of patience. I think this readied me for anything that comes my way.”
After getting a few weeks of rest and relaxation, DiBenedetto will go back to Kentucky to complete his four-year stint. Because he spent a year in Iraq, he’s guaranteed to remain in the United States until 2005.
“But there’s no guarantee I won’t go back,” DiBenedetto said. “I have to be ready for that. I don’t want to go back. If I have to, I will be angry. But it’s my responsibility.”
DiBenedetto said that he will never forget the sounds of the rocket-propelled shoulder missile going off over his head and the sounds that forced every soldier to grab a gas mask, thinking that biochemical terrorism was at hand.
“Those sounds are etched in my memory,” DiBenedetto said.
Frank DiBenedetto said that he was relieved to have his son home for a while. He took his son on another tour of duty, throughout all the agencies in North Bergen Town Hall.
“It’s like the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders,” Frank DiBenedetto said.
There will be one change when Mario DiBenedetto returns to Fort Campbell next month. He’ll lose the Private First Class rank he’s owned for the past 18 months.
“I’m going to get pinned to Specialist,” DiBenedetto said. “That should be nice.”