The father of fallen Camp Pendleton Marine Lance Cpl. Benjamin W. Schmidt has told a San Antonio newspaper his son was killed by friendly fire. Dr. David Schmidt told the San Antonio Express News that a Marine who was a friend of his son's contacted him with the information:
Dr. Schmidt said the reason the Marine confided in him because the Wall Street Journal was about to break the story, and the Marine didn't want Dr. Schmidt to learn about the way his son died from a reporter. Apparently, members of Lance Cpl. Schmidt's platoon knew about the friendly fire incident, but were prevented from saying anything because of operations security.
Dr. Schmidt is the team physician for the San Antonio Spurs.
Officially, Lance Cpl. Schmidt's death is still under investigation.
