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Walker County mourns loss of a hero
January 15, 2009 by Nicki Faulk
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.
Morgan County mourns a Hero
January 10, 2009 by Nicki Faulk
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Sergeant Rath’s loved ones:
An Army Sergeant from Morgan County has been killed in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan.
22 year old Josh Rath’s family received the news yesterday. Rath was a graduate of Austin High School, where he still had friends in the front office.
WAAY 31 spoke with one of Rath’s former soccer coaches, Lewis White, who’s now a counselor at the school. “I feel regret.” White told WAAY 31. White says his own military service may have inspired Rath to enter the Army after graduation. “He and his best friend from high school joined the Army together. And the day they joined, I was the first person they came to tell because they had joined the Army the way I had and joined to do the same job I had done in the Army. And they were very proud to of follow in what I had done 20 years earlier.”
White says Rath visited him just a couple of weeks ago during a pre-Christmas leave from the front lines. The two talked about plans after Rath got out of the Army, including what to study in college.
“Josh was a very patriotic young man and did exactly what Josh wanted to do. I think that’s one of the things that’ll leave a long term impression on his family, is that Josh was doing what Josh really wanted to do.”
No funeral plans for Sgt. Rath have been announced.
Alabama loses a hero
November 22, 2008 by Nicki Faulk
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Chief Warrant Officer Clark’s loved ones:
CW3 Donald Clark, 37, was killed in action when his OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter went down on Nov. 15 in the eastern part of Mosul, Iraq.
Final arrangements were still being worked out Friday, but family members say preliminary plans have Clark’s body being flown to the cemetery via a Huey helicopter, with a horsedrawn caisson carrying the casket to the graveside. Organizers were also hoping to arrange for a Kiowa flyover.
Clark was born in Boardman, Ohio, but has lived in Newton for several years with his wife, Jamie.
The funeral is set for 3 p.m. The family requests that donations be made to the Donald V. Clark Memorial Fund at Army Aviation Federal Credit Union in lieu of flowers.
Also killed in the accident was Army Chief Warrant Officer Christian P. Humphreys, 28, of Fallon, Nev.
A full obituary can be found inside today’s Dothan Eagle.
Double tragedy
November 20, 2008 by Nicki Faulk
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Staff Sgt. Richardson’s loved ones:
Richardson was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas.
His sister, Shirley Dukes, said Tuesday that her brother had come home from Afghanistan to attend the funeral of his father, Willie Earl Travis.
“I loved him,” Dukes said of her brother during a telephone interview from a relative’s home, where many family members had gathered. “He was the most wonderful man. He loved his mother, his wife and his four children.”
Dukes said the family was already reeling from Travis’ death, and to lose Richardson was almost too much to bear.
According to the Mobile Press-Register, Travis, a resident of the Nymph community, was buried Monday.
Officers said Richardson was alone in his 2007 Chevrolet.
Aliceville loses a hero
August 1, 2008 by Nicki Faulk
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Specialist Brown’s loved ones:
Michelle Harris said she had been expecting a phone call from her daughter, who was serving with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan.
Instead, she received the unwelcome news from an Army official that her daughter, 22-year-old Army Spc. Seteria L. Harris Brown, died while serving in Sharana, Afghanistan.
‘I was shocked and devastated,’ Harris said. ‘I still can’t believe it. I had spoken to her on the phone just a week before.’
Harris said she was told that her daughter died July 25 from a gunshot wound to the chest. An Army news release said Brown died of ‘injuries sustained in a non-combat-related incident.’
Exactly what happened isn’t clear.
‘All I know is what they told me,’ Harris said.
A spokeswoman at Fort Hood, Texas, the Army base where Brown had been stationed before deployment to Afghanistan, said Thursday afternoon that Brown’s death is still under investigation.
The spokeswoman said she did not know how long the investigation would take.
Brown was a few months into her second overseas deployment, her brother said.
She was an enlisted soldier assigned to Fort Hood’s 36th Engineer Brigade since February. She was sent to Afghanistan in April.
Brown joined the Army shortly after graduation from Aliceville High School in 2004. She enjoyed Army life and re-enlisted after her initial four-year contract expired not long ago, her mother said.
She had a seven-year-old daughter, Harris said.
‘She was such a sweet person,’ Harris said. ‘Everybody liked being around her. She always kept a smile on her face.’
Brown’s younger brother, Keiwan Harris, said he had been unable to talk his sister out of joining the Army.
‘It was something she really wanted to do,’ he said. ‘She was always an independent person.’
Brown’s decorations and awards include the Army Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon and Overseas Service Ribbon.
Services will be held 2 p.m. Saturday at New Canaan Baptist Church in Aliceville.
Auburn mourns loss of a hero
June 20, 2008 by Nicki Faulk
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Sergeant France’s loved ones:
Sunday, Raquiviaus “Quake” France told his mother about his dreams of completing aviation school and one day working on airplanes. Tuesday, the Auburn native, who turned 24, on June 4 was killed in a motorcycle accident in Pinellas Park, Fla.
“We were going to see him this weekend,” said his mother, Priscilla Daniel of Auburn. “We talked on Father’s Day and he told me he was in school.”
According to a report released by the Pinellas Park Police, France was traveling northbound on U.S. Highway 19 at 7:19 a.m. when another vehicle made a U-turn directly in front of him. The report said France’s cycle plunged into the rear of a Chevrolet Cavalier, driven by Laura Edmisten, 34. France was ejected at impact, taken to Northside Hospital in nearby St. Petersburg, and pronounced dead at the hospital’s emergency unit.
Police said the accident is under investigation and no charges have been filed.
France, a 2002 Auburn High School graduate, served five years in the U.S. Army, reaching the rank of E-5 Sergeant.
Recently, France was serving in the U.S. Army National Reserves and living in St. Petersburg, where he studied aviation. Daniel told the newspaper that France experienced baptism in the Jordan River, and enjoyed worldwide travel, including stops in Rome and Paris.
“He did so much for us and our country,” Daniel said. “He served one year in Iraq and one year in Afghanistan, and then he came back to me. I remember his strength, his leadership and he knew what to do right. He never got into trouble. He was a respectable young man. He was very loving. He wanted to take care of his mother.”
Harris Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.
Alabama loses a hero
June 8, 2008 by Nicki Faulk
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the fallen:
A soldier from Montgomery was one of two killed in Afghanistan on Thursday.
The Department of Defense Saturday identified the two casualties as Chief Warrant Officer James Carter, 42, of Montgomery and 20-year-old Pfc. Andre D. McNair, Jr., 20, of Fort Pierce, Fla.
They died on June 5 at Kandahar Army Airfield, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when the Kiowa helicopter they were in went down during a test flight.
The incident is under investigation.
They were assigned to the 96th Aviation Support Battalion, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.
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