Army Staff Sgt. Omer T. Hawkins II

Died October 14, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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31, of Cherry Fork, Ohio; assigned to the 44th Engineer Battalion, Camp Howze, Korea; killed Oct. 14 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his convoy in Ramadi, Iraq. Also killed was Pfc. Mark A. Barbret.

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Funeral planned for soldier killed in Iraq

Associated Press

CHERRY FORK, Ohio — A funeral is planned Sunday for an Ohio soldier killed last week in Iraq when an improvised bomb exploded near his vehicle.

Staff Sgt. Omer T. Hawkins II, 31, of Cherry Fork, was killed Thursday in the attack in Ramadi, Iraq, the Defense Department said Monday. He had been stationed in Iraq for just two weeks.

A memorial service is scheduled Saturday afternoon at North Adams High School and services will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Wallace-Thompson Funeral Home in Peebles, family spokeswoman Dawn Fowler said Tuesday.

He is to be buried next to his father in Locust Grove Cemetery in Peebles. Cherry Fork is about 50 miles east of Cincinnati.

Hawkins had been assigned to the 44th Engineer Battalion based in Camp Howze, Korea.

He had graduated on a Friday in 1991 from North Adams High and enlisted in the Army the following Monday.

“The only thing that he ever wanted to do was go in the military,” said his sister, Cherry Frederick, 33, of Cincinnati.

Hawkins had been on the high school’s debate team and had played baseball while in junior high school. He never married and had no children, his sister said.

His brother, Sgt. James Hawkins, 30, is in the Missouri National Guard. Their father, the late William Hawkins, had been an engineer with the Marine Corps.