Military officials have scheduled a Wednesday memorial service for a Camp Carroll soldier who was discovered dead in his barracks room last week.
The service for Spc. Dean Todd-Eckard, of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 307th Signal Battalion, 1st Signal Brigade, begins at 1 p.m. at the Camp Carroll Fitness Center.
According to an 8th Army news release issued late Thursday, Todd-Eckard was found in his room around 9 a.m. Tuesday. Neither military officials nor the soldier’s family — interviewed by his hometown newspaper — commented on the circumstances of the death.
An investigation is ongoing, officials said.
“As part of the Army’s policy and intent to preserve the honor, respect and dignity of the soldier, his family and his loved ones,” the 8th Army release read, “the investigation results will be released to the next-of-kin upon its completion.”
Todd-Eckard served as a communications and electronics maintainer at the base, in Waegwan.
According to an article published Thursday in The Signal, a newspaper in the soldier’s Canyon County, Calif., hometown, the 21-year-old’s family and friends were stunned by the news.
The soldier was to transfer to a base in Florida on Sept. 5, the newspaper quoted his parents as saying.
“He was honest. He was very responsible. He cared about everyone,” his mother, Jaqueline Todd, told the paper.
In 2001, the newspaper reported, Todd-Eckard graduated from Canyon High School early and entered a six-year enlistment with the Army.
“He was looking for adventures. It was his way to get out and travel,” Jacob Cox, a friend of Todd-Eckard’s, told The Signal.
