Age 52, Lawton - Funeral services will be 11:00 AM Wednesday at the First Baptist Church with Shane Hall, pastor officiating. COL Bankston died Saturday in Lawton after a brief illness. Burial with full military honors will be at Fort Sill National Cemetery, Elgin under the direction of Becker Funeral Home. The family will receive friends from 6:00 PM until 8:00 PM Tuesday at the funeral home. He was born March 25, 1957 in Huntsville, Alabama to Benjamin and Virginia (Scroggs) Bankston. He married Geri Geurkink on August 27, 1979 in Huntsville. COL Bankston graduated from Lee High School in Huntsville in 1975 and from Auburn University in 1979. COL Bankston was commissioned as a 2LT in 1979 and spent over twenty years on active duty. He retired from the Army in 2000. He then went to work for Tec Masters and then was a civil service employee at Fires CDID at Fort Sill where he was the deputy director at the Concept Development Division. He was a member of First Baptist Church where he was active in the Bus Ministry. He loved to hunt and fish. He is survived by his wife, of the home, three daughters, Jennifer Miller and her husband Josh, Broken Arrow, Melissa Bankston, Oklahoma City and Karen Bankston, Stillwater, a brother, James Boyd Bankston and his wife Regina, Yorktown, Virginia, a sister, Wanda Bankston, Huntsville, father-in-law and mother-in-law, Don and Deanna Geurkink, Huntsville, three sisters-in-law and their spouses, Christy and Darrell Eldridge and Tracy Delgado, all of Huntsville and Robin and Ron Betsch, Slidell, Louisiana, brother-in-law, Monty Geurkink, Huntsville and many nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his parents. Memorial contributions may be made to the First Baptist Church Bus Ministry, 501 S.W. B Ave., Lawton, OK 73501.