Army Sgt. Andrew H. McConnell

Died September 14, 2009 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

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24, of Carlisle, Pa.; assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.; died Sept. 14 in Kandahar, Afghanistan of wounds sustained when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. Also killed was 1st Lt. David T. Wright.

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Followed dad’s footsteps

The Associated Press

Andrew McConnell’s fellow soldiers remembered him as a walking encyclopedia, able to recite random trivia at any moment and a man with an intense personality.

“He was 100 mph, 100 percent of the time,” Staff Sgt. Philip McIlroy said during McConnell’s eulogy.

McConnell, 24, of Carlisle, Pa., died Sept. 14 in southern Afghanistan when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb. He was assigned to Fort Lewis, Wash., and although he listed Carlisle as his hometown, he considered the northwest home.

He was the son of a military man and moved around a lot he was born in California, went to high school in Italy and attended Georgia Military College. His sister Ashlee said Washington was his true home. It was where he met his wife, Sarah, who is expecting the couple’s first child.

Ashlee McConnell said her brother was married for only seven months before his death, but said “they were seven months that made Andrew the happiest man in the world, and they were seven months that I know Andrew is thanking God for right now in Heaven.”

McConnell enlisted in 2005 and was on his first deployment. His father, Col. Gregory “Scott” McConnell, previously was deployed to Iraq.

In addition to his wife, father and sister, McConnell is survived by his mother and three other sisters.