It happened

As Cindy was typing her words in my last post...it happened.  How many more mom's will be added to the ones that will have a sad mothers day? 

 

Iraq blast kills Miss. native

Sgt. John McGee, raised in Delta, one of 23 killed in explosion

By Lora Hines / The Clarion-Ledger

Rebecca McGee of Cary got a Mother's Day card on Monday from her son, Sgt. John McGee, who was stationed with his Alabama National Guard unit in Iraq.

The next day, the 72-year-old mother was getting ready for work when an Army chaplain arrived at her front door.

"I knew why he was there," McGee said. "I was stunned for words."

Sgt. John McGee, 36, was one of 23 soldiers who died in an explosion earlier this week while riding in a vehicle, said his mother. She did not know the cause of the blast.

"I really didn't cry," McGee said. "I said, 'Lord, have mercy' as I was walking around."

Officials from the Alabama National Guard could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

Lt. Col. Tim Powell of the Mississippi National Guard said he didn't know details about McGee's death.

Since military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq began, 27 soldiers with ties to Mississippi have died.

About a week ago, McGee briefly visited with her son as he stopped by before returning to Iraq. He had been on leave, said his sister, Sharon McGee-Barnes. "He was trying to make the rounds," she said.

Her brother had spent much of his leave waiting for a car he bought on eBay to be delivered to his home in Columbus, Ga., McGee-Barnes said. He decided to visit family in Mississippi after the car failed to arrive. "The car came the day after he left for Iraq," McGee-Barnes said.

Rebecca McGee recalled how she helped her son enlist in the Army when he was 17 and a 1986 graduate of South Delta High School. He joined the Alabama National Guard in the late 1990s, McGee-Barnes said.

He was expected to leave the National Guard in August, spend some time with family and then enroll in school, his mother said.

She said her son was devout in his faith, and she knows she will see him again. "I'm going to reunite with my son," Rebecca McGee said. "All God's children go to heaven. When I walk inside, I'll look for him. I'll recognize his smile."