Dupont, 52, was a lifelong military man with a relentless sense of duty, according to friends and family. He graduated from Chicopee High School in 1976 and enlisted in the US Marines, where he served before joining the Massachusetts Army National Guard full-time. Dupont was close to retirement when he volunteered for service in Afghanistan, eager to pass on decades of training to less experienced soldiers. He died June 17, 2009, after succumbing to wounds suffered when his Humvee struck a bomb March 8 in Kandau, Afghanistan.