Stanley Jay Benson was born at Lansing, Ingham County, Michigan on November 17, 1923. He was probably an only child. His parents were Howard William Benson (28 Aug 1885 – 5 Apr 1942), who was born at Laingsburg, Shiawassee County, Michigan; and Cecil Vera (Dennis) Benson (3 Aug 1895 – 13 Nov 1986), who was born at Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, and moved to Pontiac, Michigan as a child with her parents.

His parents married at Pontiac, Oakland County, Michigan on December 28, 1917, and lived in Pontiac, where his mother owned a millinery shop and his father was state tax commissioner. The family moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada for several years. By April 1940 the family lived on Church Street in Coopersville, Ottawa County, Michigan, and his father worked as a specialty salesman of guns and ammunition. His father died at Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan in 1942.

He completed four years of high school, and registered for the draft at Lansing, Michigan on June 30, 1942. He was 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighed 155 pounds, and had brown eyes and brown hair. At that time he resided at 526 West Washtenaw Street in Lansing, and was employed by the Nash Kelvinator Company in Lansing. He worked as a stenographer and typist and was single, without dependents, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army at Kalamazoo, Michigan on March 12, 1943. His home of record was 91 East Howard Street, Pontiac, Oakland County, Michigan, his mother's address in 1944.

He completed Army Air Forces aerial gunnery and armament training, and was assigned to the heavy bomber crew of Lt Norman E. Gross. By December 1943 the Gross crew began B-24 crew training at Davis-Monthan Field near Tucson, Arizona. In January 1944 the Gross crew was assigned to the 838th Bomb Squadron of the 487th Bomb Group at Alamogordo Army Air Base, New Mexico. There they completed B-24 combat crew training, and deployed with the Group to England in March–April 1944. They flew B-24H 42-52629 'Sweatin' It Out' from Alamogordo, New Mexico to Lavenham, England via the southern Atlantic ferry route—a journey of about 10,000 miles—and arrived at Lavenham by mid-April 1944. There is a photo of the crew taken at Herington, Kansas during the deployment to England, that is posted on the 487th Bomb Group website. The 487th Bomb Group was based at Army Air Forces Station 137 near Lavenham, Suffolk, England, and was part of the 8th U.S. Army Air Force in Europe.

In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, the 487th Bomb Group dispatched two Squadrons on the first of three missions that the Group flew on D-Day. The Gross crew flew B-24H 42-52629 'Sweatin' It Out' on this mission, and Sgt Benson flew as top turret gunner. The 487th Bomb Group was assigned to bomb a choke point—a road junction—in Caen, France, to disrupt German transportation. The Group's assembly in the dark over England took five hours, much longer than planned. Then a complete undercast prevented the crews from bombing the target. On the return, the entire heavy bomber force was routed away from the Allied shipping area, to the west of the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey. Sgt Benson and his nine crew mates went missing in action when their aircraft ran out of fuel and went down in the English Channel. A station at Saffron Walden, England, received a distress call from the crew at 0842, which indicated that the aircraft was about 35 miles northwest of the Cherbourg Peninsula, and all four engines were dead. The aircraft's last reported position was 49°52'N, 02°38'W, some 20 to 25 miles northwest of the Channel Island of Alderney. Other crews almost ran out of fuel before landing at bases near the English coast.

The remains of Flight Officer Levine, the bombardier, were found by the crew of the British ship HSL 192 (High Speed Launch 192) and were buried at sea, in the English Channel, on July 3, 1944. None of the other crew members was ever found.

Sgt Benson is memorialized along with his five enlisted crew mates on the Wall of the Missing at Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. The four officers on the crew are memorialized on the Wall of the Missing at Cambridge American Cemetery in England.

He has a cenotaph on his parents' grave marker at Laingsburg Cemetery in Laingsburg, Shiawassee County, Michigan. His birth year is inscribed 1922 on this cenotaph.

B-24H 42-52629 crew:
• Gross, Norman E – 1/Lt – Pilot – MIA
• Haskell, Willard D – 2/Lt – Copilot – MIA
• Moke, Francis E – 2/Lt – Navigator – MIA
• Levine, Milton – F/O – Bombardier – Buried at Sea
• Huebel Jr, Benjamin A – S/Sgt – Engineer – MIA
• Markowitz, Max I – S/Sgt – Radio Operator – MIA
• McWilliams, Charles A – Sgt – Nose Gunner – MIA
• Benson, Stanley J – Sgt – Top Gunner – MIA
• Allensworth, Harold O – Sgt – Ball Gunner – MIA
• Westhoff Jr, Henry B – S/Sgt – Tail Gunner – MIA

Source of information: Paul Webber, www.findagrave.com