Army, Private
Based: Ft. Riley, Kan.
Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: December 31, 2008
Balad, Iraq
Married, 1 child
Gender: Male
Hometown: Concord
High School: Berean Christian High School ()
Burial: Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, Calif.
While in boot camp, Tollefson kept in touch with his girlfriend, Natalie Hartley. They had recently broken up, but one day Hartley called with exciting news: She was pregnant. The two reconnected and were married Dec. 6, 2007. Their son, Mac, was born four months later.Read the entire LA Times story about Army Private Benjamin B. Tollefson here, find more here and here and visit Private Tollefson's Guest Book here.
Tollefson was assigned to the Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division at Ft. Riley, Kan., where his new family lived with him for a few months. Then, last September, Tollefson deployed to Iraq for what was supposed to be a 12-month tour.
But on New Year's Eve, Charles and Mary Tollefson received a visit from military officials bearing heartbreaking news: Their youngest son, Pvt. Benjamin Bryan Tollefson, had died that day in Balad, Iraq, of injuries suffered in a mortar attack on his unit in northwest Baghdad's Ghazaliya neighborhood. He was 22. In addition to his parents, wife and son, he is survived by a sister, Jaime, 29; and a brother, Jeffrey, 25.
A funeral service with full military honors was held Jan. 10 at Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church, which filled with more than 1,300 people.
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