Pvt. 1st Class Noah Samuel-Siegel died Nov. 8, 2021, in his barracks room at Camp Humphreys, South Korea, the Army said Wednesay, March 2, 2022. (Margaret and Yoni Samuel-Siegel)
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — A 19-year-old military police soldier stationed in South Korea was found dead in his barracks room in November, according to Army officials.
Pvt. 1st Class Noah Samuel-Siegel was found unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene by emergency medical personnel on Nov. 8, said a statement emailed Wednesday by spokesman Capt. Mike Houston of the 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command. Samuel-Siegel served with the command’s 142nd Military Police Company, 94th Police Battalion.
Evidence indicated Samuel-Siegel died by suicide, his parents, Margaret and Yoni Samuel-Siegel, told Stars and Stripes by phone Monday, citing their conversations with Army officials.
The Army made no public statement at the time Samuel-Siegel died, and an investigation into the circumstances of his death is still underway, according to a representative of the sustainment command’s public affairs office who spoke with Stars and Stripes on Friday.
A plaque in remembrance of Pvt. 1st Class Noah Samuel-Siegel, who was found dead in his barracks room at Camph Humphreys, Nov. 8, 2021. (Margaret and Yoni Samuel-Siegel)
Samuel-Siegel, a native of Haddon Heights, N.J., enlisted in the Army in July 2020. After advanced training, he was assigned to the 142nd Military Police Company at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, where he was tasked with law enforcement duties. He was reassigned to Camp Humphreys, the largest U.S. military base overseas, with the same battalion in October.
Samuel-Siegel’s unit held a remembrance event on Feb. 28 in which he was “mourned by his teammates,” battalion commander Lt. Col. Scott Chalkley said in a statement Friday.
The sustainment unit’s commander, Brig. Gen. Steven Allen, in a statement Wednesday said the unit’s leadership “send our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and loved ones.”
“We are all deeply saddened by the loss and will keep his family in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time,” Allen said.
Samuel-Siegel was posthumously awarded the Army Achievement Medal and Army Overseas Service Medal.
In addition to his mother and father, Samuel-Siegel is survived by an older brother, Tyler Samuel-Siegel, and a younger sister, Ella Samuel-Siegel. His parents described him as “a great son, brother, grandson, person,” in an email to Stars and Stripes on Monday.
“He was a beautiful, kind, compassionate, generous, thoughtful, and loving goofball,” they wrote. “His enthusiasm for life was infectious and he brightened our world and the lives of those he touched every day. We miss Noah indescribably.”
Soldiers who served with Samuel-Siegel wrote tributes to him in a book delivered to his parents. In it, his parents said, soldiers described Samuel-Siegel as “closest to all the KATUSAs,” referring to South Korean soldiers who are attached to Eighth Army units as part of the Korean Augmentation to the U.S. Army program.
“[Noah], I miss you man,” one soldier wrote in the tribute. “I wish I got the chance to tell you more how proud I am of you. I admired you. I still do. You taught me how to always see the good in people no matter how many times they’ve done wrong.”
Samuel-Siegel’s parents said they planned on participating in the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s “Overnight Walk” in New York City on June 4 to “shine a light on the troubling rate of suicide among active military members and hopefully increase public awareness and scrutiny.”
