A 19-year-old Schofield Barracks soldier who deployed to Iraq last month died Monday from a noncombat-related incident in Taji, just north of Baghdad, the Army said.

Pfc. Juctin R.P. McDaniel of Andover, N.H., was a generator mechanic with the 536th Maintenance Company. His command has its headquarters at Fort Shafter.

About 140 soldiers with the 536th deployed to Iraq. The unit is not part of the Stryker brigade, which just sent 4,000 soldiers to Iraq and will be based in part at Taji, an air base about 10 miles north of Baghdad.

The circumstances of McDaniel's death are under investigation, the military said.

Joy Langtry, who lives across the street from the McDaniel family in the rural Andover neighborhood of 2- and 3-acre lots, expressed shock and sadness that McDaniel had died.

"I didn't know him well, but I know that he was very, very proud of his military service, and I think that he found a lot of direction having joined the military," Langtry said by phone.

McDaniel graduated from Merrimack Valley High School, Langtry said. He joined the Army just more than a year ago and was assigned to Schofield Barracks in April, his Fort Shafter command said.

Langtry remembers the lanky man with blond hair helping his stepfather in the garden, and playing basketball with his brothers and sisters.

"Kinda quiet, but always ready to wave and say 'Hello' when I went by," she said. "He was a decent kid and I know that his family felt his going into the Army really, really helped him."

McDaniel's command said the family did not want to speak to the media at this time.

Schofield Barracks recently held a remembrance ceremony in the main post chapel for the 41 Hawai'i soldiers who were killed on a 15-month deployment to Iraq that ended in October.

About 7,000 Schofield soldiers served in northern Iraq on that deployment.

About 550 Hawai'i soldiers are deployed to Iraq from the 536th Maintenance Company, elements of the 728th Military Police Battalion, the 552nd Military Police Company, the 82nd Engineer Company and the 8th Human Resources Sustainment Center. The soldiers are serving in Taji, Tikrit, Mosul and Ramadi.

A 22-year-old Schofield Barracks soldier who deployed to Iraq in September was killed in November.

Pfc. Casey P. Mason, of Lake, Mich., died in Mosul of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit using small-arms fire, Pentagon officials said.

Mason was a military police officer assigned to the 728th Military Police Battalion, 8th Military Police Brigade, 8th Theater Sustainment Command.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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