Staff Sgt. Christopher L. Everett, 23, died Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Defense said Tuesday. Everett was assigned to the Army National Guard, Fifth Battalion, 112 Armory.
He was working with a power washer when he was electrocuted.
"No one knows why it happened," his mother, Larraine Everett, said in a telephone interview with The Huntsville Item. "But Chris was doing something he believed in, and even though his death was an accident, he was serving his country. He was making a difference. He told us how bad things were over there, and if he could make a difference he was doing the right thing."
Everett said she was just finishing dinner with her fiance Wednesday when the military arrived to tell her of her son's death.
"They were never supposed to come to my door. ... They were never supposed to come to my door. I just keep having that vision, constantly," she told the newspaper.
Christopher Everett graduated from Huntsville High School. He was working at the Texas Department of Corrections' Estelle Unit when he was called to active duty.
He volunteered last year to go to Iraq and was sent there Jan. 1. He came home on leave for 10 days in June.
His fiancee, Kristy Wellborn, of Lovelady, said Everett would call her every weekend.
"He would call me when he knew I was at work and leave me a message, telling me he was thinking about me. He really was amazing and did everything a husband or boyfriend should do," she said.
Everett's mother remembered him as a kind, loving and quiet individual who cared deeply for his friends.
"I was always so proud of him, and I am proud of him beyond words that he would volunteer to risk his life when he didn't have to," she said.
I would like to say thank you for your service and sacrifice for our Country. And to your family, I wish to extend my deepest sympathy.
"Rarin To Go"(112th Armor Motto)