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Family Of Fallen Soldier From Arvada Talks To CBS4

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Sep 7, 2008 2:45 pm US/Mountain

Family Of Fallen Soldier From Arvada Talks To CBS4

Reporting
Howard Nathan
ARVADA, Colo. (CBS4) ― A soldier from Arvada died Thursday in Iraq when his Humvee rolled over a roadside bomb. Staff Sgt. Kenneth Mayne was killed protecting civilians. Mayne's grieving family shared their pride in their soldier son with CBS4's Howard Nathan Saturday.

Mayne's mother is numb right now, but she talked to CBS4 because she wanted to make sure everyone remembers there's still a war going on and soldiers like her son should not be forgotten.

"I think it helps to know that maybe because he died some other people will have a better life," said Michelle Benavidez, Mayne's mother.

Mayne, 29, had served in and out of Iraq since coalition forces toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

"My son believed in what he was doing, he loved being a soldier," Benavidez said.

She said he loved helping Iraq's poorest children in Bagdad's Sadr City slum.

"I remember he told me, 'If I can change one child's view, one Iraqi child's view of Americans, maybe in 20 years we won't ever need to be there.'"

Years in Iraq also led to disappointment with the news media.

"He says they don't tell you when we got fresh water to a school or we cleaned up some outside sewage so the kids aren't playing in sewage and getting disease," she said. "He says no one ever shows you any of that, you know, but they did a lot of that."

His family believes he played a winning hand in working to fix Iraq, a surprise perhaps, considering who he was at 18 years old. He was a troubled teenager, a young man in need of direction so much his mother insisted he join the military -- and it worked.

"He thrived in the Army and it made him the man that he became," Benavidez said.

Mayne planned on nine more years of serving his country and then he wanted to come home to Colorado to become a history teacher.

Mayne's family says as long as our military is still facing gunfire and the roadside bombs, the best way to help is to pick a charity for families of wounded soldiers; or adopt a soldier without a family in need of a care package. In doing so, it's perhaps one way of honoring the memory of Kenny Mayne.

Funeral arrangements for Mayne are still pending. His body will be returned to Colorado next week.

(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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