Virginia Beach soldier dies in Iraq; cause unclear

VIRGINIA BEACH

Spc. Chris McCarthy joined the Army Reserve to help pay his tuition at Old Dominion University.

Duty sometimes interrupted his life after graduation.

In February, he volunteered for a six-month deployment to Ramadi as part of a task force helping to reconstruct the Iraqi city.

On Sunday, McCarthy was found in his barracks unconscious and without a pulse. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful. McCarthy was 28.

Lt. Col. Philip Smith, public affairs officer for Joint Forces Command, said Tuesday that the cause of death has not been determined. An autopsy will be performed.

Neighbors said McCarthy was quiet, close to his large family and eager to better himself. He had seven siblings and shared the family home in Virginia Beach with one of his brothers, neighbors said. His parents are deceased.

McCarthy graduated from Tallwood High School in 1998, said classmate and neighbor Ellen Silvela. He was friendly, easygoing and polite, she said .

Silvela studied finance at ODU and gave McCarthy some books and advice about the course work, she said.

He was described as a pleasant presence around the neighborhood. “Every time you’d see him, he’d wave,” said Rhonda Perea, a family friend and longtime neighbor.

Perea said McCarthy never got into trouble as a child.

“He was a fine young man,” Perea said. “Great things were in his future.”

McCarthy deployed overseas twice.

A brother, reached at the family home, declined to comment.

Task Force Ramadi is made up of more than 100 military and civilian personnel, Smith said. The unit fell under Joint Forces Command, based in Norfolk.

 Louis Hansen, (757) 446-2322, louis.hansen@pilotonline.com