I Got The News Today (IGTNT) provides members of this community a venue to pay their respects to those who have died as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The IGTNT title is a reminder that nearly every day the family of an active duty service member receives the terrible news that their beloved has died.
Sergeant Jason Mitchell McClary
Jason Mitchell McClary was from Export, Pennsylvania, which is in Westmoreland County. He attended Kiski Area High School, and Northern Westmoreland Career & Technology Center, where he took machine tool technology classes.
Lillie Ashbaugh was a classmate of Jason’s and they both graduated in 2013. A few months after graduation, Jason and Lillie got married.
Jason enlisted in the Army in January of 2014. He arrived in Fort Carson on October 25, 2017. The enlistment was quite an accomplishment for him, as detailed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
As a student at Kiski Area High School, Jason McClary talked about how he wanted to join the Army. After he graduated, he kept getting rejected for health reasons — a broken hand, over the maximum weight, tubes in his ears.
“He was turned away time after time,” messaged his wife, Lillie McClary, on Monday. “He finally lost all the weight and he was healthwise ready to enlist and he tried one more time and he made it.”
For four-and-a-half years, Sgt. McClary, of Export, fulfilled his dream, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was injured Nov. 27 when an IED struck his vehicle in the Andar district of Ghazni Province and died Sunday in Landstuhl, Germany. He was 24.
He spent about eight months in Iraq, starting in May of 2016, and was later sent to Afghanistan in April of 2018. He earned several military medals, including two Purple Hearts.
More recently, McClary was based out of Fort Carson, Colorado. He was an infantryman assigned to 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.
Leaving Lillie and their two sons at the family’s military home at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Jason deployed to Afghanistan this past spring. He was serving as a gunner, manning a dedicated gun position on the military vehicles.
On November 27th, Sergeant McClary was riding in a vehicle that struck a roadside bomb in the Andar District of the Ghazni Province. More information about the incident are included in a previous diary by Joy of Fishes.
Three of his buddies were killed, but he survived the blast. He was flown from the scene and eventually to a military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. There he underwent multiple surgeries before dying on the morning of December 2nd.
As McClary was flown to Germany, his wife and sons were flown there too. They were with him when he passed. Lillie is quoted in an article posted on the WPXI website:
"I sat there and I held his hand and I told him what the kids had been up to and what the baby has learned," said Lillie McClary, as she described the final moments by her husband's bedside in a Germany hospital.
She told Channel 11 he suffered a massive stroke after coming into contact with an IED while on patrol.
"I had to make the decision to take him off his breathing tube and just let nature take its course," she said. "It was something we had gone over before. He said if he ever was hurt and never going to be able to live a normal life, he said let me go and move on with life."
Governor Tom Wolf, the governor of Pennsylvanian, ordered flags at the Capitol Complex and other state facilities fly at half-staff in honor of McClary. The flags will remain in that position until sunset on the date of his interment.
“Sgt. McClary gave the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of his country and, for that, we will be forever grateful,” Wolf said.
McClary is survived by his wife and two sons, ages 3 and 1. Funeral arrangements have not been announced, but are expected to be held in Pennsylvania.
I Got the News Today is a diary series intended to honor, respect and remind. Its title is a reminder that almost every day a military family gets the terrible news about a loved one. Please bear in mind that these diaries are read by friends and family of the service members chronicled here. May all of our remembrances be full of compassion rather than politics.