Honored L.A. veteran not afraid to battle for his beliefs
Given a choice, David McCarthy would gladly go back.
Afghanistan. Iraq. The Horn of Africa.
All Uncle Sam would have to do is call, and Lt. Col. McCarthy would gladly pick up on the other end and sign up for another tour of duty in the United States Marine Corps.
“I was fine with being deployed again,” said McCarthy, who in civilian life works as a deputy district attorney for the City of Culver City, having joined the office 15 years ago. “But once I hit 28 years of commissioned service, as a lieutenant colonel, you have to get out.
“I didn’t want to retire, but I had to.”
In other professions, people retire, then hit the banquet circuit. For McCarthy, it’s been an ongoing circuit of a different sort. Late spring and early summer are a time of numerous days on the calendar devoted to patriotism, and McCarthy is there to take part. Take Memorial Day, when he joined his twin 10-year-old sons, Connor and Trevor, and the rest of their Manhattan Beach Cub Scout den to help lay thousands of flags at the Los Angeles National Cemetery.
However, just as often these days, the reason for honor has been McCarthy himself. True, it may not rise to the level of the Bronze Star he received for being injured in combat during a May 2007 attack on Baghdad, but this spring he was recognized by the Culver City City Council with a proclamation centered on a previous honor — his selection late last year as the 2009 Los Angeles County Veteran of the Year.
Forget that bunk offered up by Gen. Douglas MacArthur that “old soldiers never die, they just fade away.” The evidence is everywhere that McCarthy, for one, is not going gently into that good night, but working as diligently as ever to promote his ideals of freedom and duty.
“You know the old saying, ‘Service before self,’” said McCarthy, who was discussing his willingness to sign up as a reservist after his original service had come to a close, but just as easily could have been pointing to his ongoing efforts to promote the military.
“I have no tolerance for reservists that complain about it. Your obligation is to be ready whenever the country needs you for as long as it needs you. That’s why I signed up. It was always be ready for as long as they needed you.”
It’s that belief system, that sense of honor, that helped make McCarthy a prime candidate for the L.A. County veteran award he ultimately received and was recognized last November during a UCLA football game halftime ceremony at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
Among all of his other official and unofficial duties, McCarthy is a proud member of the Jewish War Veterans. It is in that capacity that he crossed paths with Culver City resident Neil Rubenstein, himself a 1961 enlistee of the U.S. Army.
As a voting member for the county veteran award, Rubenstein felt it was a no-brainer to nominate McCarthy at last year’s meeting, held at the Los Angeles Department of Military and Veteran Affairs.
“The colonel is not only a great warrior in my opinion, but also a great humanitarian,” Rubenstein said. “A dynamic person. I think he’s a great patriot and a person willing to make sacrifices to him and his family because he believes in America and what we’re doing in the Middle East.”
Asked about reaction to McCarthy’s nomination for the award, Rubenstein made it clear the leadership of Los Angeles’ many veterans groups matched his own personal feelings about the man he simply refers to as “the colonel.”
“I read his biographical sketch to the group. That was that,” Rubenstein said. “I felt personally the colonel was the best choice, and I’m glad that a majority of the people who were there agreed with me.”
The fact that McCarthy seems to receive universal adoration in military circles doesn’t mean life as military man is always easy. By his own admission, his reception around city offices and within law circles is a mixed bag. For every person he meets who declares him a hero for his work on the front lines, there is another equally strong in his or her belief that the United States is overstepping its bounds beyond its borders.
Then again, it’s those very expressions of freedom that McCarthy willingly fought for in the first place.
“It’s easy for me to explain it. It might be hard for them to get it,” said McCarthy about what it is that kept bringing him back to the Marine Corps for more than a quarter of a century. “I’ll be the first to admit it sounds it cliché, but freedom isn’t free. … I personally want to be a part of any organization that helps defend our rights and way of life.”
