A Gorham soldier who was born with a heart condition died in Iraq on Monday, apparently from a heart attack. Spc. Matthew E. Schneider, 23, was found lying on his bunk in Ar Ramadi at about 9 p.m. Iraq time, said his father, Andrew Schneider. He was unresponsive and could not be revived.

The Army is investigating the cause of Schneider's death, but his parents say initial lab tests reveal Schneider had a heart attack. Army officials would not confirm the cause of Schneider's death yesterday.

Schneider was born with a heart defect called idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis, said his mother, Cynthia Tardiff. The condition causes heart muscle fibers to grow abnormally, which can thicken the heart muscle and limit its pumping ability.

Schneider was not expected to live through his infant years, Tardiff said. But when Schneider was 2, his symptoms seemed to disappear and tests on his heart, like electrocardiograms, came back normal, she said.

Last Sunday, Tardiff received an e-mail from her son, who had been in Iraq for six months with the 141st Signal Battalion of the of the 1st Armored Division, a unit based in Wiesbaden, Germany. Schneider, who loved running and working out at the gym, told her that he was going to stop running for a little while. He had been caught in a sandstorm while he was running a few days earlier, he told her, and he was having trouble breathing.

About six hours before he died, Schneider called his father after finishing a run, Tardiff said. In a message Schneider left on his father's answering machine early Monday morning, he said he was going to take a shower and wished his father a happy birthday.

"I love you, and I miss you," he said in the message. "I think about you all the time."

Andrew Schneider said his son had been cleared for military service and had not shown symptoms of heart trouble since he was 6 months old. He said he didn't want to speculate whether the condition caused his son's death.

Schneider, who attended Gorham Middle/High School, was a technology guru, which suited him well for his work in the 141st Signal Battalion, a support unit that manages communication, including electronic and telephone communication.

As a teenager, Schneider knew enough about computers to play pranks on his classmates; they'd find their disc drives opening and closing when they hadn't touched any buttons, their computers flicking on and off, said Jackie Corrigan, who taught business and technology classes at Gorham Middle/High School.

"He had a bit of a mischievous side," said Corrigan, who retired in January. "He was devilish in that way, but never destructive."

Schneider's love of computers started early, and during his four years of high school, he took every class Corrigan offered. He helped teachers and other students with their computers, and Corrigan sometimes sent him to help local businesses that were having computer problems, said Andrew Schneider.

"He was just tremendous," said William Kaczenski, assistant principal at Gorham High.

During his senior year, Schneider was one of two students who earned college credit in a computer technology course Corrigan introduced. After he graduated in 2001, Schneider attended New Hampshire Community Technical College in Nashua on a scholarship, his father said.

But Schneider didn't feel focused; he said he hadn't found his purpose, Tardiff said. Schneider decided to join the military in October of 2004.

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