Walker County mourns loss of a hero

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Private McCune’s loved ones:

A 20-year-old Army soldier originally from Walker County has been killed in Iraq. Pvt. Sean P. McCune died Sunday in Samarra, Iraq, of injuries from a noncombat incident, Army officials said. He was assigned to the Army’s 25th Infantry Division. Army records list McCune as being from Euless, Texas, but he grew up in Walker County, northwest of Birmingham, and graduated from Curry High School in 2006. McCune’s mother, Sandra Gibson, told the Jasper Daily Mountain Eagle her son had wanted to enlist in the Army from the time he was 15. He enlisted in May 2008 and deployed to Iraq in October.

Gibson, who still lives in Walker County, said after her son graduated from high school she asked him to wait a year before making a final decision about enlisting. Even though he waited, she said he never wavered from wanting to serve his country.

Since deploying to Iraq, his few e-mails home were short and sweet, his mother said.

“I’m okay, and I love you,” he would write.

“He was fired up. He loved it. There was nothing about the Army that Sean didn’t love,” his mother said. She said her son wanted to become an Army Ranger.

Family members remembered McCune as a loving son and brother, who loved to make people laugh.

“He was mischievous to a fault. Whatever he could do to make somebody laugh, that was Sean,” Gibson said.

McCune loved joking around with his sisters — Amber McCune, 23; Natasha Gibson, 17; and Vicki Gibson, 11.

“He was a best friend. He would be there no matter what you needed, and he would make you laugh until your stomach hurt,” Amber McCune said.

“He was always good to talk to because he would listen to you about anything,” Natasha Gibson said.

Funeral arrangements for McCune have not been announced.