Springfield News-Leader — A 24-year-old soldier from Commerce died Thursday in Iraq, according to the Army.

Staff Sgt. Shaun J. Whitehead was killed when an improvised explosive device detonated while he was on foot patrol in Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad, the Army said.

The Pentagon confirmed Whitehead's death late Friday night.

Whitehead was a former student at Commerce High School, said school counselor Elaine Roller.

"He was a nice young man. Didn't get into trouble, a nice kid," Roller said.

Whitehead joined the Army in 2003 and arrived at Fort Stewart in 2004, according to Fort Campbell Public Affairs.

He was an infantryman in the 101st Airborne Division assigned to A Co., 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Campbell, Ky.

Whitehead was the sixth Fort Campbell soldier killed in Iraq this week, and the second military man with local ties killed in little more than a week.

Hundreds turned out Tuesday to lay to rest U.S. Marine 1st Sgt. Luke Mercardante, 35, who was killed in Afghanistan on April 15 when a roadside bomb blew up his armored vehicle.

Whitehead's body was expected to be flown into Dover, Del., Saturday night and will arrive at Athens-Ben Epps airport on Tuesday or Wednesday, said Gary Hinson of the Patriot Guard Riders.

Riders will escort the body from Athens to Evans Funeral Home in Jefferson, which is in charge of arrangements, Hinson said.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been made, he said.

Whitehead is survived by his wife, Brenda, and two children son Gabriel Whitehead and daughter, Jana Moore, all of Fort Campbell, Ky., and his mother, Rebecca Whitehead, of Maysville, according to Fort Campbell Public Affairs.

==Another news story==

In a little more than a month, Army Staff Sgt. Shaun Whitehead would have reunited with his family for a mid-deployment break from Iraq.

His family members in Fort Campbell, Ky., and Maysville anxiously were counting the days until the reunion when they received word last week that the 24-year-old Jackson County native had been killed, his mother, Rebecca Whitehead, of Maysville said.

Sgt. Whitehead was killed Thursday by an improvised explosive device while on foot patrol in Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad, the Army said.

Her son died doing what he loved, Rebecca Whitehead said.

"He was an exceptional person. He was a good son, a good father, a good soldier," she said. "He was going to be a career military man, and he was very proud to tell you, too."

Shaun Whitehead, an infantryman in the 101st Airborne Division assigned to A Co., 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Campbell, had been in Iraq since October, Rebecca Whitehead said.

It was his second yearlong deployment.

He leaves behind a wife, Brenda, a son and a daughter, all of Fort Campbell.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been made.

Shaun Whitehead, who attended Commerce High School, joined the Army in 2003 and arrived at Fort Stewart in 2004, according to Fort Campbell Public Affairs.

His grandfather, Coy O'Shield of Maysville, said his grandson flourished in the military.

"He was fine young man," said O'Shield, a Vietnam veteran. "I'm real proud of him."

Whitehead was the sixth Fort Campbell soldier killed in Iraq last week, and the second military man with local ties killed in little more than a week.

The Athens Banner-Herald -- 

It's become such a common story from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, news that a soldier or two or three or four have died in the explosion of an improvised explosive device barely commands attention anymore, unless the last names, or the hometowns, of the troops who gave their lives bring a jolt of recognition.

Sadly, that jolt has come to this area twice in a little more than a week, most recently in the death of 24-year-old Army Staff Sgt. Shaun J. Whitehead of Jackson County.

Whitehead died Thursday when an improvised explosive device exploded while he was on foot patrol in Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad, the Pentagon confirmed Friday. On April 15, the explosion of a roadside bomb in Afghanistan took the life of Marine 1st Sgt. Luke Mercardante, who grew up in Athens.

Whitehead, who joined the Army in 2003, was an infantryman in the 101st Airborne Division based in Fort Campbell, Ky., and was in his second deployment. He had been scheduled for a mid-deployment break within the next few weeks, and his wife, son and daughter in Fort Campbell, as well as his mother and other family members in Maysville, had been anxiously counting down the days to that hoped-for reunion.

According to his mother, Staff Sgt. Whitehead was planning to make the military his career. She said he was "an exceptional person ... a good son, a good father, a good soldier."

The sergeant's grandfather, Coy O'Shield, called his grandson "a fine young man."

Obviously, the wider community will not feel the loss of Staff Sgt. Whitehead as keenly or as personally as his family and friends. But the people of this area can, and will, wonder in the coming days about what has been lost with his death, about what he might have done, and who he might have become, had he not died in the service of his country.

The fact that he did give his life to his country makes it self-evident that, as his mother and grandfather know best, the world lost an exceptional man - a fine man, and a good man - in Staff Sgt. Shaun J. Whitehead.