Life and Religion

He’s been called “Big Mac” and “Gentle Giant,” but after last week’s Fort Hood shooting, he wears the badges of hero and survivor.

Alonzo Lunsford Jr., 43, of Rockingham, just about 64 miles east of Charlotte, was among the soldiers injured in last week’s massacre at Fort Hood, Texas. He was working as a medic at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center.

Standing three inches shy of being seven feet tall, Lunsford was shot four times, twice in the stomach, in his back and near his eye.

Some reports have indicated he was shot while trying to push one of his soldiers out of the line of fire.

“I looked him (the gunman) right in the eyes, and he looked at me. There was nothing there,”  Lunsford told a friend, according to a report in the New York Daily News. “I began pushing everyone out of the way when I felt the gunshots.”

Lunsford, a 19-year Army veteran, is recovering at a Texas hospital and had to have part of his colon removed.

The encounter with the gunman last week was not the first time for Lunsford. Reports say he crossed paths with Maj. Nidal Malik Hanson two weeks prior when checking a soldier into the post’s psychiatric ward.

I met Lunsford once through his mother, Johnsye Lunsford, who works as clerk for the city of Rockingham. He adores his mother, who boarded a plane for the first time in her life to be by her son’s side. But she was not alone. She was accompanied by Rockingham Mayor Gene McLaurin who wouldn’t allow her to take this journey alone.

Her son was one of the blessed ones – to be shot four times and survive is divine authority. There is clearly more work for him to do here. But for 13 others, their life missions ended during that dreadful rampage and my condolences are extended to their family and friends.

This week we celebrated Veterans Day. Undoubtedly many prayers were made, moments of silence were honored, and flags were waved all across the country for our military servicemen – fallen, retired and active.

My prayer is that the focus we have on veterans on this one holiday be transcended into our daily lives. For as the Fort Hood incidence has shown, our soldiers are in danger not just on foreign ground, but at home.

A veteran journalist, Kimberly Harrington is a freelance writer. E-mail her at onyxlyspeaking@yahoo.com.

 

Comments