Photo By Monique LaRouche | Gunnery Sgt. David Kerr, Regional Command Southwest's governance operations chief pays...... read more read more
Subscribe
CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan – Servicemembers gathered May 5 to celebrate the life and mourn the loss of Master Sgt. Scott Pruitt during a memorial service at the Camp Leatherneck chapel.
Pruitt was killed in action during an improvised explosive device attack in Zaranj, Nimruz province, Afghanistan, April 28.
Assigned to Regional Command Southwest’s governance section, Pruitt served as the Commander’s Emergency Response Program Fiscal Chief. A comptroller by trade, he was mourned not only by his small community of approximately 400, but every servicemember he met.
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Grant Murphy, RC (SW) Financial Management Resource Officer, became friends with Pruitt while they were both stationed at the Financial Management School, Camp Johnson, N.C. Serving as instructors, they developed a close bond.
Murphy read a letter during the memorial he wrote for Pruitt after his death to reconcile his grief and share the dynamic personality of Pruitt.
“Your mere presence in a room, the office, a social gathering, or a meeting improved the mood,” read Murphy. “I will never forget your subtle way of dropping obscure movie quotes into serious conversations and then your disappointed head shaking when we missed the reference.”
Because they were at the schoolhouse together, Pruitt would often chide Murphy when giving a presentation.
“I am forever conscious of pet words because of the after actions reports you gave us after every meeting, debriefing us on how many ‘uhs’ or ‘ums’ we each said,” he said. “When you updated me on a count in the middle of meetings, I wanted to laugh and choke you at the same time. But, it was precisely that levity that made you who you are and who we will remember.”
Murphy shared his opinion of Pruitt as an easy-going spirit who was always good for a laugh with many people, including Gunnery Sgt. Jamie Hammond, RC (SW) Comptroller chief, who met Pruitt during 2004.
Hammond shared for the crowd Pruitt’s first priority, to be a dedicated father and devoted fiancée.
“Upon his return from Zaranj, he was going to submit his retirement papers, thus beginning the culmination of his honorable yet diverse career in the Marine Corps,” said Hammond. “But, also initiating the next volume in his life. He was looking forward to getting married to his fiancée Trisha [Lane], moving to Virginia, starting his new career and spending time with his daughters.”
Hammond spoke of how he would talk constantly about his daughters and endured a more than hour commute to work before his deployment just so he could be close to them.
“I have never seen such a proud father,” she said “Jennifer and Jordyn were the light of his life. It was evident when he would spend time with his girls because he would have pictures, videos and stories of their excursions together. He would talk about how he plotted to surprise his daughters for their birthdays or what he was going to get them for Christmas.”
Pruitt was a few weeks shy of his 19th anniversary in the Marine Corps, where he enlisted out of Gautier, Miss. During that time, he served in Okinawa, Japan; Keflavik, Iceland; Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, S.C., Camp Pendleton, Calif.; Camp Johnson, N.C.; and Training and Education Command, Quantico, Va. The one thing he was unable to do during that career was to deploy to a combat zone.
After checking into I Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), Pruitt was cut from the deployment roster twice because of troop drawdowns. He was steadfast in his determination to deploy because he didn’t want to retire not having served in a combat zone, said Murphy. But, his life was full of sacrifices for what he felt was important, he said, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Navy Capt. Guy Lee, RC (SW) chaplain, had met Pruitt on the trip to Afghanistan. Lee provided the pastoral reflection for the ceremony and spoke what an impact Pruitt made on him during the 75-minute bus ride they shared to their departure point.
“After hearing word of his death last Saturday, I had a difficult time sleeping,” said Lee. “I kept thinking about the fact that I’d just seen him a few days before and now he was gone. I can’t forget Master Sgt. Pruitt. And that was all based on one 75-minute bus ride.”
But Lee provided solace for those who mourned Pruitt.
“For all of us who are trying to make sense of Master Sgt. Pruitt’s loss, we must first make the conscious decision not to follow our grief down the road to bitterness, but we must patiently walk the road toward healing,” he said. “If you’ve been affected by Master Sgt. Pruitt’s loss, that healing won’t happen overnight. Days, weeks and months may pass where you feel no progress is being made. But if we choose to trust in God’s compassion, even in the midst of your questions, He will give you grace. We won’t forget Master Sgt. Pruitt, but we must also remember to wait for God to bring healing, to seek him, to place our hope in him.”
| Date Taken: | 05.08.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 05.08.2012 11:13 |
| Story ID: | 88086 |
| Location: | CAMP LEATHERNECK, AF |
| Web Views: | 1,113 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Marines gather to celebrate life, mourn loss of fellow Marine, by MSgt Brenda Varnadore, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
