A Columbus East High School graduate was one of two soldiers killed this week during a suicide bombing in Afghanistan.

Sgt. Jonathon Hunter was a 2011 graduate of Columbus East, where he played on the football team. The 23 year old was just 32 days into his first deployment.

His father, Mark Hunter, talked with our news-gathering partners at RTV6 about his son’s loving heart.

Mark Newell, principal at Columbus East, said that Hunter loved his country…

East Football Coach Bob Gaddis talks with RTV6 about Hunter’s character.

The Pentagon said the attack happened in the southern province of Kandahar. A suicide bomber reportedly drove a vehicle rigged to explode into the convoy near an airport where international troops are aiding Afghan security forces against the Taliban.

Also dying in the attack was 25-year-old Specialist Christopher M. Harris of Jackson Springs, North Carolina. Both served with the 2nd Battalion, 504th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.

According to his unit,  Hunter joined the Army in April 2014 and, following Basic Combat Training, Advanced Individual Training, and Airborne School at Fort Benning, Ga., was assigned to 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. This was his first deployment.

Hunter is the second East graduate to die while serving in Afghanistan. In 2010 Jeremy McQueary was killed while conducting searches for Improvised Explosive Devices.