Navy Operations Specialist 1st Class (SW) Thomas C. Hull

Died August 2, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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41, of Princeton, Ill.; an operations specialist assigned to the guided missile cruiser Princeton, homeported in San Diego; died Aug. 2 aboard the aircraft carrier Nimitz in the Arabian Gulf after being medically evacuated to the carrier for a non-combat-related incident.

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A sailor for life

Associated Press

Thomas C. Hull wanted to be a sailor from the time he first mentioned it to his mother in the fifth grade.

“He told me when he was pretty young that he was going to join the Navy,” said his mother, Mary Hull. “He told me he was going to go to college and join the Navy. He talked about it all of the time.”

Hull, 41, of Princeton, Ill., died Aug. 2 from what appears to be a heart attack while serving aboard the USS Princeton in the Arabian Gulf.

Mary Hull said her son had just finished three years of land duty and had been based in San Diego with his family before he went abroad.

Before he left, his family moved to South Carolina, where Hull and his wife recently bought their retirement home. “He’d be retiring next year after 20 years of service,” his mother said.

It was Hull’s second time serving in the gulf area. He joined the Navy in 1986.

He is survived by his wife, Christine, and three sons, ages 14, 12 and 11.

“He was a family man,” his mother said. “He loved the outdoors and was a big hiker. He loved animals, too. They have all kinds of them. He liked doing all those things with his boys.”