Army Sgt. Jonathan N. Hartman

Died April 17, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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27, of Jacksonville, Fla.; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment, 1st Armored Division, Friedburg, Germany; killed April 17 when his convoy was ambushed in Dwaniyan, Iraq.

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Fallen soldier remembered as patriot

Associated Press

WAYNESVILLE, Ohio — Flag-waving schoolchildren lined the streets of this southwest Ohio village April 28 to pay tribute to a soldier killed in Iraq.

Army Sgt. Jonathan Hartman, 27, from Orange Park, Fla., was killed April 17 when his convoy with the 1st Armored Division was ambushed near the southern Iraqi city of Diwaniyah.

Hartman’s family decided to hold the funeral and bury Hartman in Waynesville, where his mother was raised and many relatives still live.

“Sgt. Hartman was a dedicated patriot who loved serving in the U.S. Army,” said Dale Campbell, pastor of the First Baptist Church. “We are all proud to have known him.”

About 180 people gathered for the funeral, where Hartman’s relatives sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” and remembered Hartman as a youthful red-head who played the guitar and loved to sing.

During the funeral, Jay Burton said that as a boy Hartman would come to Ohio and play with his children.

“Our own sons feel like they have lost a brother, and in many ways they have,” Burton said.

Hartman’s flag-draped coffin was flanked by two large photos of him, one as a boy and the other with him in his military uniform. A video tribute chronicled his life from a baby to a soldier.

Students holding tiny American flags lined the streets as the funeral procession made its way to Miami Cemetery, where Hartman was buried next to his uncle.

Following the graveside ceremony, Judy Hartman said her son loved being in the Army.

“He called me the day before he was killed; he’d just been extended for 90 days,” she recalled. “He was so excited to be able to stay and fight for freedom for the Iraqi people.”

Hartman, a native of Portsmouth, Va., attended high school in Virginia and lived in Florida since 1996. He enlisted in the Army in 1999 and was a crewman on an M-1 tank.

Waynesville is about 20 miles south of Dayton.

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Florida soldier dies in Iraq

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A soldier from Orange Park “who loved his flag, loved God and country” was killed in action in Iraq, his mother said in a statement read by a friend.

Sgt. Jonathan N. Hartman, 27, was the second Florida resident to die in Iraq this week.

Hartman was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment, 1st Armored Division, Friedburg, Germany. He was killed Saturday when his convoy was attacked near Diwaniyah, Iraq.

Hartman enlisted in October 1999 and was a crewman on an M-1 tank, said Lt. Col. Stan Heath, a spokesman for Army Public Affairs.

Hartman, a native of Portsmouth, Va., attended high school in Virginia, but has lived in Florida since 1996. He enlisted in the Army in 1999 and was assigned the duty of tank crew member in Germany.

“Sgt. Hartman was a dedicated patriot that loved serving in the U.S. Army, loved his flag, loved God and country, and was proud of his assigned mission,” his mother Judy Hartman said in a statement.

Mrs. Hartman will return her son to the Waynesville, Ohio, area for memorial services and burial. A memorial service will be held later in the Jacksonville area.

A Florida soldier, Army Staff Sgt. Raymond Edison Jones Jr., of Gainesville, was killed April 9 by a rocket-propelled grenade attack in Bayji, Iraq.

Jones’s father, Raymond Edison Jones Sr., lives in Miami.

Jones had three younger brothers, who are now all adults: Michael E. Jones, an insurance investigator in Orlando; Kurt Douglas “K.D.” Jones and Erick Roger Jones, who both live with their remarried mother, Olga Marta-Chavez Smith, in Costa Rica.

The Jones family spent much of Jones Jr.’s youth in Bradenton and Tampa. They moved to Levy County in 1989. Jones graduated from Santa Fe High School in June 1990 and attended the University of Florida for two semesters.

His widow, Katia, was born in Germany. He had a daughter from a previous marriage.

He entered the Army in November 1991 and was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 7th Field Division, 1st Infantry Division, which is based in Schweinfurt, Germany.

He will be buried Monday at Arlington National Cemetery.

— Associated Press