
JACKSON, Miss. — Staff Sgt. John McGee, an Alabama Guard member and Mississippi native, died in Iraq when his tanker truck was hit by a bomb blast, the Army said Thursday.
McGee, 36, was living in Columbus, Ga., and working for a home health agency when he was deployed, his mother, Rebecca McGee, told The Associated Press.
Military officials said McGee, a member of the Alabama Guard’s 2101st Transportation Company based in Camden, had completed a program to become a lieutenant but had not yet been commissioned.
Rebecca McGee said an Army chaplain brought her word about her son’s death on Tuesday.
She said her son enlisted in the Army when he was 17 and expected to leave the National Guard in August. McGee served 8 years in the Army before joining the National Guard in 1996.
“He was such an...