Sgt. Scott Studenmund remembered as part of Memorial Day service
A plaque commemorating the death of Army Staff Sgt. Scott Studenmund, who died in June 2014 at the age of 24, was unveiled Monday morning during a tribute at Memorial Park.
The annual Memorial Day service featured dozens of veterans who stated how they served in the military, and local students, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, who read excerpts of letters or literary pieces written during or about past wars.
At the end of the tribute, Jaynie Studenmund, a La Cañada Flintridge resident and mother of Scott Studenmund, told the crowd that the park where her son’s name was unveiled was also where he used to play as a boy, having spent 14 years in the city.
She said her family’s fond memories of him go back to when he played La Cañada junior baseball, where he was fearless at stealing bases. She said he learned to ride his bike on the La Cañada High campus.
After graduating from Flintridge Preparatory School, her son felt a calling to serve in the military forces, and he approached his parents while in college to say he would always be able to return to school to earn a degree, but his heart was set on serving in the military.
“We gave Scott our full support,” she said. “Eighteen months later, he was one of only three of the 38 in his platoon to make it through as a Green Beret. He had studied Arabic for six months …and he was a sniper. But more than that, Scott loved mankind, and he loved being a Green Beret.”
Her son would also go on to train soldiers in Lebanon.
On his last deployment, in a rural province in Southern Afghanistan, he was working with his unit to clear villages ahead of the Afghan people voting in an election. He helped clear the villages in January of 2014 and returned again in June, for the run-off, his mother said.
On his last mission there, about 40 minutes from getting picked up, he was killed by friendly fire in Gaza Village, with several others, but he had saved his medic’s life, said Jaynie Studenmund.
“I would just tell you that if Scott were here today, he would say, ‘I was doing my job,’” she said.
She then encouraged the crowd to support military troops.
“These men and women need our support. They are just phenomenal Americans,” she said.
A short time later, Jaynie Studenmund placed a bouquet of flowers under her son’s name, the only La Cañada casualty of the war in Afghanistan.