Private Bennie Allen DeWitt 
Lower Brule, Lyman County, South
Dakota
Killed in action during active USA Military Service During Invasion of Normandy, France.
Bennie Allen DeWitt was born m
August 15th, 1921 to Bennie Ash DeWitt and Dolly
Driving Hawk, into a household of fourteen children. Raised in Lower
Brule, S.D.
Bennie helped
his father as a rancher. He attended a small country school on
the Lower Brule Indian
Reservation until the eighth grade
when he terminated his education and began working.
July 1st,
1942, DeWitt enlisted in
the U.S. Infantry Corps as private. He took up
training in Camp Croft,
North Carolina. He left the
States for Africa where he participated
in the Tunisian Campaign and also fought in Sicily after
which he was sent to Iran and later
to England to train for the D-Day
invasion. He was among the first
contingents to make the invasion.
The
following is a portion of the last
letter to Bennie's father: Dear Dad, I got a couple of your letters,
but was unable to write.
I am fine as usual. Yup,
pop, I was a man on the day
of my birthday, but was well occupied,
so I never knew it until later
on that it was the second day of
the mix up, and we finished it on the 30th. It was furious, but we
take care of ourselves.
Snipers were plentiful in
this place, but all is quiet now. I got a snappy automatic, small as shell, 25 cal.,
it's a beaut. Found
another but gave it to my buddy ..., Spanish type, different caliber,
32 bout. Mine is French. I think when jerry did the
looting. If you haven't got the
paratrooper boots yet,
don't get them but send them
if you have. The letter revealed, or at
least gives the impression,
that DeWitt was in good spirits at this time.
Mr.
and Mrs. Ben A. DeWitt, Sr. of Lower Brule
received a message from the
War Department bearing the
bad news of the death of their
son, Sgt. Bennie DeWitt, Jr., who
was killed on the Normandy
front in France during the
D-Day invasion. He was the "apple
of his father's eye".
This entry was respectfully submitted
by Allison Mowry and McKenzi
Taylor, 11th grade,
Lyman High School, Presho South Dakota,
February 25, 2002.
Information
for this entry was provided
by Tamara Fonder, Lower Brule,
relative of Bennie A. DeWitt.