Namesake baby born to daughter of USC Desert Storm casualty

Jessie Bush, the University of South Carolina medical school graduate whose father, Dixon Walters, Jr., of Barnwell, was killed 25 years ago during the Persian Gulf War, has returned home after giving birth to a son, also named Dixon.

Dixon Stephen Bush was born at 3:21 a.m. Saturday to Jessie and Brandon Bush of Washington, D.C.. He weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces.

Baby, mother and father are doing well.

“We’re thrilled he has joined our lives,” Jessie’s mother, Kim McCarthy, said of her first grandchild, also named after Jessie’s stepfather, Stephen McCarthy. “It’s a miracle, an absolute sweet miracle.”

Walters, also a USC graduate, was serving on the C-130H Spirit 03 gunship during the Gulf War when he and his 14-member crew was shot down over Kafji, Saudi Arabia. There were no survivors.

The U.S. Air Force crew was among the first killed during Operation Desert Storm, the Allied effort to remove the Iraqi Army under Sadam Hussein from Kuwait.

The State profiled Walters in its Memorial Day edition. Walters is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, just a few miles away from Jessie’s home. She was 3 years old when her father died.

“It’s the greatest tribute you could ever honor a father with,” Kim McCarthy said.

This story was originally published June 7, 2016 at 7:37 AM with the headline "Namesake baby born to daughter of USC Desert Storm casualty."