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A Chicago mother is grieving the death of her son, a United States Army specialist who was killed by extremists in Kenya.
Henry “Mitch” Mayfield Jr., 23, was one of three people killed in a pre-dawn raid in Kenya on Sunday. Mayfield hailed from Hazel Crest, Illinois and studied business at Northern Illinois University before joining the military in June 2018 to help pay for his college education, according to CBS Chicago.
The raid happened at Manda Bay Airfield, an installation near Nairobi that is jointly shared by U.S. and Kenyan military forces.
On New Year’s Day, Mayfield Face-timed his mother, Carmoneta Horton-Mayfield, and told her he was safe, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. That changed a few days later when on Sunday Mayfield, along with two other Americans who both worked as military contractors, were gunned down after their airbase was attacked by militants affiliated with al-Qaida. Two Department of Defense members were also wounded.
The heartbroken mother took to Facebook to thank everyone for their condolences and support.
“Thank you to all that have reached out to my husband and I with your touching words regarding the loss of our son Army specialist Henry Mayfield Jr. We may not be able to respond to them all at this time but we feel the love and we appreciate you all. Please keep our family in prayer,” Horton-Mayfield wrote on her Facebook page. She also shared a number of photos of her son.
CBS Chicago interviewed Hazel Crest Village Clerk Isaac Wiseman about Mayfield’s life and service to his country.
“Outstanding young man, always polite, always just very nice. It’s breaking my heart. It really is, it’s breaking my heart,” Wiseman told CBS. “I just saw him this summer. I don’t have words to say. It’s just breaking my heart.”
Neighbor and Army veteran Rochelle Crump, who heads up the National Women Veterans United, also told the news station that she joins the nation in mourning Mayfield’s death.
“Too often we’re hearing this, but we don’t take it lightly. When we lose one, it affects every last one of us,” Crump said. “Knowing that we’ve lost one, we have to come together to support that family.”
Mayfield’s parents traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Monday night to collect his body and returned to Chicago on Tuesday, where they plan to bury their son. Arrangements for a full military funeral are currently being made.
