PHS grad dies in Afghanistan

Sgt. 1st Class David L. McDowell, a 30-year-old Poway High School graduate, died Tuesday, April 29 in Bastion, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered during a conflict with enemy forces.

The 1996 PHS alumnus and former Titan football player, joined the U.S. Army almost immediately after graduation and was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, in Fort Lewis, Wash.

He completed basic training, Airborne, then Ranger training, all at Fort Benning, Ga.

Sgt. McDowell is the fourth military man with Poway ties to die during Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom.

“My brother ate, slept and breathed Army,” said his sister Becky McDowell of Poway. “He was Army all the way.”

She said that she was always proud of her brother’s commitment to the Army, his country, but also to his family. He was following in the footsteps of their father, Steven McDowell, a former Army Ranger.

During his Army career, David McDowell received several service-related awards including two Bronze Stars with valor devices, an Army Achievement medal with three oak leaf clusters, an Afghanistan, as well as an Iraq campaign medal, plus numerous other medals.

He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, another Bronze Star plus a Meritorious Service medal, after the recent combat incident in Afghanistan, said an Army spokesman.

Sgt. McDowell is survived by his wife, Joleen; son, Joshua; and daughter, Erin, all of Lakewood, Wash.; his mother, Laurie Ann Wathen of Julian; father, Steven L. McDowell of Hope Hills, N.C.; and sisters, Becky McDowell, Poway and Michele Delay of North Carolina.

Poway-Bernardo Mortuary held a viewing May 6 for Sgt. McDowell’s local relatives and family. It also helped with funeral arrangements for burial at the Riverside National Cemetery May 7.

The McDowells suggest donations be sent to: 2nd Ranger Association Foundation, c/o Mark Wilkins, c/o Merrill Lynch, 1630 S. Lyndbergh Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63131.