Former Press reporter killed in action in Afghanistan

William J. Cahir, a staff reporter at The Southampton Press in the mid-1990s, was killed by enemy fire on August 13 in Afghanistan, during his third tour of duty. Sgt. Cahir joined the Marines as a reservist in 2003, compelled by the tragedy of September 11, 2001. He was 40.

Assigned to cover the Southampton Village beat at The Southampton Press, he was remembered this week by former Press editor Peter Boody as “among the best and most memorable of all the many reporters I worked with over the years at The Southampton Press.”

Mr. Boody added, “He was gung ho about every assignment and always gave each one everything he had. He was great company, too, and one reason we had fun and some laughs in the newsroom back in those days. I have stayed in touch with him over the years and, when I learned some years ago he was joining the Marines, I really wasn’t surprised: it was the kind of commitment Bill would make and the kind of challenge he would be eager to accept.”

Joining the Marines at the age of 34, Sgt. Cahir had to convince recruiters to accept him. Once they did, Sgt. Cahir wrote a front page story published in the July 4, 2004, edition of the Express-Times of Easton, Pennsylvania, about his boot camp experience at an age nearly twice that of the average recruit:

“Arms leaden, I wondered: Why was the [drill instructor] forcing me to scale the wall a second time?

“It didn’t matter. I hollered, ‘Aye, sir!’

“I took a second run at the wall, leapt up and stalled. I didn’t have the arm strength.

“‘Yeah, yeah!’ the DI, crouching atop the wall, shouted into my face. ‘Some things don’t get easier with age, do they, Ca-heer?’”

Sgt. Cahir served two tours in western Iraq from 2004 to 2005 and 2006 to 2007. He was working for the Newhouse News Service, reporting from Washington for several New Jersey and Pennsylvania based dailies when he enlisted, and returned after his second tour was complete. In January 2008, he resigned from his newspaper job to make a run for Pennsylvania’s 5th District Congressional seat, a race he lost in the Democratic primary.

Former Newhouse News Service colleague Brett Lieberman said, “So many of us who want to do something, we procrastinate, we’re lazy. Bill just did it.”

Born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, he graduated from Penn State University in 1990 with a degree in English. In the early 1990s, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he was a staffer on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Joining the staff of The Southampton Press in the mid-1990s, he covered the Southampton Village Board and the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals. Before his most recent deployment, he worked at a Washington-based consulting firm that negotiates government contracts.

Doug Love, a former Press colleague, now assistant director of communications at Consumer Reports, manned a desk opposite Bill Cahir’s. “I can’t say that I was surprised when I learned of his decision to join the Marines following 9/11. Bill cared about the nation and the world, and was always concerned about doing the right thing. He also had an innate sense of confidence in his ability to get the job done.”

Another former colleague, Nick Watt, now with ABC News London Bureau, recalled, “I never heard him say a bad word about anyone, and I never heard him refuse a plea for help ... whatever you needed Bill would do it without question. Bill had an almost inhuman determination. If he put his mind to something, if he believed in something, then he would do everything he possibly could to achieve it. He was like that with his work and obviously his military service. He was determined, humorous and kind.”

Sgt. Cahir will be posthumously awarded The Purple Heart at a ceremony on September 13.

Sgt. Cahir is survived by his wife of three years, Rene E. Browne of Alexandria, who is pregnant with twin girls; his parents, John and Mary Anne Cahir of State College, Pennsylvania; two sisters; and a brother.

Memorial services have yet to be announced.

In his last conversation with is wife, Sgt. Cahir found out that his wife is expecting twin girls. A memorial fund has been set up to help pay for the family’s needs. Donations may be sent to the Bill Cahir Memorial Fund, Box 268, Alexandria, VA 22313, or at www.billcahirmemorialfund.org.