Corporal Joseph C. McCarthy, USMC
May 26, 2008 on 2:38 pm | In Fallen Heroes, Obituaries | 2 Comments
CORPORAL JOSEPH C. MCCARTHY
March 21, 1983 to Sept. 6, 2004
[EDITOR’S NOTE: On this Memorial Day 2008, a U.S. Marine is remembered for his sweet heart and belief in future generations, a belief his family gives voice to through a foundation bearing their fallen hero’s name.]
“Hearts and minds, gents”
Lance Cpl. Joseph C. McCarthy, 21, would kneel down and clown around with Iraqi children, dispensing fistfuls of candy (which he always carried), even in dangerous situations. “Hearts and minds, gents,” he would quip, leveling a frisky grin at fellow Marines concerned for his safety. McCarthy’s sweet-dispensing ways won him the nickname “Willie Wonka.”
Joe’s mother, Rhonda McCarthy of St. John’s, AZ, said her son believed Iraqi children “were going to change the world.” On Easter Sunday in 2004, she said, he handed out candy to youngsters at a military checkpoint west of Fallujah while strangers, who could have been insurgents, looked on. “He did it because he loved kids,” Rhonda McCarthy said. “Joe was the peacemaker that day, and they were all laughing and joking within minutes.”
Couldn’t wait to…get in the corps