Bath Resident Dies in Afghanistan Attack

Army Reserve Capt. Joshua McClimans of Bath Township was killed in Afghanistan last week, according to published reports.

“Joshua was a terrific person,” his sister, Jennie Ransom, of Meadville, PA, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “He enjoyed caring for soldiers. He had compassion for people.”

WKSU-FM reported that McClimans was walking to work Friday at the hospital at Salerno Army base southeast of Kabul, Afghanistan, when he was struck by mortar or rocket fire and killed. There was a conflicting report that he was shot by a sniper. The Defense Department said in a release McClimans died "of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with indirect fire."

A native of Pennsylvania, McClimans was enrolled at Kent State University for a year, then transferred to The University of Akron and joined the ROTC program. After graduation from Akron, he served in Iraq and at Walter Reed Hospital.

He was a nurse in the intensive car unit at Summa Western Reserve Hospital in Cuyahoga Falls, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. He enlisted in the Army reserves a year and a half ago, and reportedly had been in Afghanistan for about six weeks.

Survivors include a son, Max, 7; a daughter, Emma, 13; and his parents, Michael McClimans of Jamestown, PA, and Cindy McClimans of Texas. His former wife, Amanda, lives in the Akron area.

Before he left for Afghanistan, he spoke to his son's first-grade class at Fort Island School, the Beacon Journal reported. 

A funeral is being planned in Jamestown, PA.