Former SSU Football Player Chester J. McBride, Jr., Killed in Afghanistan Suicide Bombing

The six U.S. airmen killed by a suicide bomber near Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, on Monday, Dec. 21, 2015, are clockwise from top left: Staff Sgt. Peter W. Taub, Tech. Sgt. Joseph G. Lemm, Maj. Adrianna M. Vorderbruggen, Staff Sgt. Chester J. McBride, Staff Sgt. Michael A. Cinco and Staff Sgt. Louis M. Bonacasa. 

courtesy: FACEBOOK

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The deadliest attack in Afghanistan since 2013 killed six U.S. troops on Monday, including a family man from Long Island, New York; a South Texan; a New York City police detective; a Georgia high school and college athlete; an expectant father from Philadelphia; and a major from suburban Minneapolis with ties to the military's LGBT community. They were killed when their patrol was attacked by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle near Bagram Air Base, the Defense Department said. Here is more about them:

STAFF SGT. CHESTER J. MCBRIDE JR.

McBride, 30, of Statesboro, Georgia, was assigned to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.

He was a football standout at Statesboro High School, where he played defensive back on the team that won a 2001 state championship. An uncle, Kenneth McBride, said his nephew also played football at Savannah State University before he joined the military.

He said they often hit the gym to lift weights together when his nephew would come home on leave.

"He was real strong and had just a great positive attitude about what he was doing," Kenneth McBride said. "He loved the military."

Ken LeCain, principal of Statesboro High School, said in a statement posted on the school's Facebook page, "I will always remember him as a young man of high character with a great smile."

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