Philip D. Brown

Richmond County Daily Journal

Staff Sgt. Alonso “Big Mac” Lunsford, the former Richmond County resident wounded in the Fort Hood shooting, is reportedly recovering after surgery Tuesday morning to repair his shattered cheekbone.

This according to his mother, long-time Rockingham City Clerk Johnsye Lunsford, who arrived home to Rockingham Sunday and returned to work this week.

“He seems to be doing fine,” Lunsford said from her office in Rockingham City Hall.

She said that over the next couple of months, doctors are planning to examine if there was any damage done to his eyesight.

“He can see right now,” Lunsford said. “It’s just that sometimes he might see a little blurred, so they want to see what damage has been done to his eye.”

Lunsford also said doctors are concerned over damage that may have been done to his hearing, as well.

“But, his other wounds are healing, and he’s healing,” she continued. “Hopefully, he’ll be able to get out of the hospital soon.”Lunsford 12-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son are currently in Newport News, Va. with their mother. Lunsford had separated from his wife prior to the shooting, she said.

“They’re doing fine, I just talked to them this morning before they went to school,” she said. “They just want their dad to get better so they can see him.”

While Lunsford has been attempting to be the glue that holds the family together, her own strength has obviously taken a toll despite her return to work.

She announced her retirement effective in January at Rockingham City Council’s October meeting.

She said the whole ordeal of her son being shot in the attacks and traveling to Texas to be with him has left her feeling “as tired as ever.”

She’s planning a leave of absence to begin Thursday.

“I’m going to take a couple of days to try to get myself together,” Lunsford said.

She also said that since the shooting, the response from Richmond County residents has been a source of inspiration to the entire Lunsford family.

“I really want to thank everybody here for their prayers and their support,” she said. “And he does, too. It’s meant a lot to him.”

The 43-year-old Lunsford has spent most of his adult life in the Army and has never been stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

He’d previously been served in Germany and Central America, before being stationed at the Fort Hood military installation for approximately a year when the shooting happened.

He sustained four bullet wounds during the Nov. 5 attack, according to previous reports. Two of the shots struck him in the abdomen, while one hit him on the edge of his eye-socket and another ripped into his back.

He had encountered his alleged shooter, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan two weeks before the attack at Fort Hood’s Psychiatric Ward, and remembered the man seeming “very down to earth.”

Hasan was wounded after firing as many as 100 shots into the crowded room of U.S. servicemen and women.

He is currently alive, though multiple media outlets reported his lawyer saying he is paralyzed and likely will never walk again.

Lunsford was credited with saving several lives during the incident by his commanding officer, his mother told the Daily Journal in a previous interview, and another woman said he took two bullets that helped save her daughter’s life.

“Mac said he’s no hero, that he just did what he had to do,” she was quoted from the interview.

Anyone who wishes to send a card, can do so by sending it to Johnsey Lunsford , C/ O Rockingham City Hall, 514 Rockingham Road, Rockingham, NC, 28379.

Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com.