Robert C Hammett

TUCSON, Ariz. — A soldier from Tucson has been killed by a bomb in Iraq, according to the Defense Department.

The military said Friday that Army Chief Warrant Officer Robert C. Hammett died Tuesday in Baghdad.

Hammett, 39, was assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, based in Fort Carson, Colo.

Hammett was a command and control technician on his second deployment to Iraq. He also served in Kuwait in 2002 and 2003.

Hammett joined the Army in 1990 and had been awarded the Bronze Star and other medals. He is the 239th soldier from Fort Carson killed in the Iraq war.

Also killed in the explosion was Maj. Dwayne M. Kelley, of Willingboro, N.J. The 48-year-old was assigned to the 432nd Civil Affairs Battalion of Green Bay, Wis.

Hammett leaves behind his wife, Leanna, and five daughters. The couple’s oldest child is 16 and the youngest was born in March 2007, family members said.

Hammett, who lived in Tucson in the late 1980s and met his wife there, planned to retire from the Army in two years with 20 years of service, said his sister, Kit Wolfe of Tucson.

“He loved his girls — his wife — very much,” Wolfe said. “Every time he had to leave them, it just broke a little piece of his heart. He was courageous and brave to keep going over there and doing what he did.”

Wolfe said her brother worked at the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System in Tucson before joining the Army in 1990.

He served his first tour in Iraq from November 2005 to November 2006. His second tour in Iraq began in December.

Hammett’s body was being flown to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base here. His funeral is scheduled for Thursday in Tucson.

Army Chief Warrant Officer Robert C. Hammett, 39, who will be buried in Tucson next week, became the 239th soldier from Fort Carson, Colo., to die in the Global War on Terrorism.

He was a command and control systems technician with 18 years of Army service.

His job was “very high tech,” said his sister, Kit Wolfe, of Tucson, who called him “a wonderful person, very athletic and highly intelligent.”

“He was responsible for going out on Humvees and making clear satellite connections for communications purposes,” Wolfe said.

“Recently he had switched jobs into the job he had when he was killed — PR. He did things that we just didn’t know about. He was connected probably alot deeper to things than he could ever say to us.”

The Army’s account of his death placed him inside the civic center in Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq, when a bomb that had been planted inside the building exploded, killing an Iraqi and also Army Maj. Dwayne M. Kelley, 48, a New Jersey native, who was fluent in Arabic.

A U.S. Army spokesman, Maj. Nathan Banks, said from Washington on Friday that he is a friend of Kelley. He said Kelley and Hammett had more than 50 years of military service between them and the men were helping in the effort to rebuild Iraq when they died.

“That’s quality soldiering. They are going to be missed by all. The Army mourns with their families,” Banks said.

Wolfe said she got the news of her brother’s death Tuesday by cell phone.

“My husband called me while I was (in a grocery store) and asked, ‘Is there a place where you can sit down?’“

Banks said the bodies arrived at Dover (Del.) Air Field Thursday night. Hammett’s body was being flown to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

Hammett was assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. He and his family lived near Fort Carson, Wolfe said.

Hammett joined the Army on March 2, 1990, and served in Kuwait in 2002 and 2003.

He served his first tour in Operation Iraqi Freedom from November 2005 to November 2006. His second tour in Iraq began in December.

Hammett graduated from La Belle High School in La Belle Fla. and served in the Coast Guard before joining the Army, she said.

Wolfe remembered the brother she calls “Charlie” as a “really red” newborn. Their mother told her he was red because he had colic and had been crying.

“I remember it clear as day,” she said.

“He was a comrade to his military family and a wonderful husband, father, brother and son.”

Wolfe said her mother last saw “Charlie” on Halloween 2007.

“She hugged him really hard and told him to be safe.”