Modified Mon, Nov 16, 2009 11:19 PM
Big Mac makes a big save
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close xMany folks around Rockingham have memories of the kid we called Big Mac using his 6-foot-10, 200-plus-poundbody to shield opponents from the hoop when he played at Richmond Senior High School during the early 1980s.
For a bunch of people at Fort Hood, being shielded by Big Mac - U.S. Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford - was almost their last memory. Period. Lunsford shielded some fellow soldiers from one of their co-workers who turned on his own in a deadly massacre.
"He was getting people out of the doors," his mother, Johnsye Lunsford, told me Monday by telephone. Johnsye Lunsford, whom I've known about 30 years, is the Rockingham city clerk. "People came up to me and told me he saved their lives by taking the bullets."
Lunsford took four, and two are still inside him. According to Lunsford and news reports, Mac was three to 10 feet from Maj. Nidal Hasan when Hasan allegedly opened fire.
"He knew him and had worked with the guy a couple of weeks ago," Johnsye Lunsford said. "He's not even bitter at the guy. That's the kind of heart he has."
Marc Newman, a vice president at St. Augustine's College, said Lunsford attended St. Aug's in 1995 and 1998, and was an assistant coach of the women's basketball team. "It doesn't matter how briefly you're here - once you're a Falcon, you're a Falcon for life," Newman said Monday. "We're praying for his healing and looking forward to having him back on campus so we can thank him for his service."
We can all thank Big Mac for his service. Whether the shooter was a deranged killer fighting inner demons or a terrorist declaring jihad on America, his rampage did not tear our nation asunder. If anything, it brought us closer together.
If you doubt it, look at what happened in Rockingham after Big Mac got shot.
Despite his injuries, Lunsford didn't expect his mother to show up at his bedside so soon because he knows she has "a deathly fear of flying" and had never flown before.
Rockingham Mayor Eugene McLaurin knew of her fear, too. After ordering flags flown at half staff, he flew to Texas with Lunsford and held her hand during the flight.
"In your life there are moments you remember, like the birth of your first child," McLaurin said. "The expression on his face when his mama walked in that room, that was a special memory."
Johnsye Lunsford said the doctor told her that her son's reaction would be very emotional.
"When I walked in, he started crying out of one eye because the other one was swollen shut. He said 'Mama, I didn't think you were going to make it.' "
For a time, doctors thought the same thing about her son. On Monday, he was scheduled for surgery to repair his eye socket and cheekbone. Part of his colon was removed earlier.
"He's not out of the woods yet, but he's doing better," Johnsye Lunsford said, noting that the bullets hit no vital organs. "One thing that helped him was size."
That's the same thing we used to say when Big Mac was grabbing rebounds on the basketball court.
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