
BUNNELL, Fla. — A Marine from Camp Lejeune, N.C., has died nearly four months after suffering severe injuries during combat in Iraq.
Lance Cpl. John T. Schmidt III, 21, who lived with his mother and stepfather in Brookfield, Conn., was injured Jan. 30 in an explosion during combat in Iraq’s Anbar province. He died Wednesday at an Army hospital in San Antonio, Texas, according to his Florida relatives.
His father, John Schmidt Jr., 45, of Bunnell, said his son had been on a ventilator for three months because of pneumonia. Schmidt said he visited his son days before he died, and was prepared for the worst.
“They told us he had a 25 percent chance of getting through it,” he said. “So we had a good idea he wasn’t going to survive but a few days or a week.”
Schmidt was with fellow platoon members in an agricultural building near Fallujah when they came under...