Fri, May 09 2008
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Published March 24, 2008 09:39 pm - Army Staff Sgt. Chris Hake, who graduated from Oklahoma Bible Academy in Enid, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Enid soldier killed in Iraq By Robert Barron ENID NEWS AND EAGLE (ENID, Okla.) ENID, Okla. — Army Staff Sgt. Chris Hake loved his job and loved the men he worked with.
Sunday night, Hake was one of four U.S. servicemen killed in Iraq when their vehicle was hit by as roadside bomb in southern Baghdad. His father, Enid resident Pete Hake, described his son Monday as an “energetic, rambunctious kid.” “He got out of high school and didn’t know what to do. I mentioned the service, and I was thinking the Air Force,” Pete Hake said. “He went down to see his recruiter that day and came home and told me he had joined the Army.” Chris Hake, an Oklahoma Bible Academy graduate, husband and father to a young son, grew to love the Army and had been promoted rapidly, his father said. He was a member of the 3rd Infantry. Hake, 26, was in command of four or five others who went on street patrols in Baghdad. His father said he loved his guys. “He said they would die for each other, and they did,” Hake said. The blast that killed Chris Hake and the others also injured a fifth person. The fatalities pushed the American troop death total over 4,000 since the beginning of the war. During a conversation with his son during his deployment to Iraq, Pete Hake asked Chris what he would do if he could come home. His son answered he did not want to come home but wanted to stay until his duty was over. “No matter what was going on at home, it was the Army first,” Hake said. This was Chris Hake’s second deployment to Iraq. The first left him disillusioned about the war, Pete Hake said, because his son said the war was being run by Washington, D.C. He said the terms of engagement are not conducive to surviving. This deployment, he was more encouraged, Pete Hake said. “He was 100 percent sure we should be there, and he talked of the love of the Iraqi people for him and his guys,” he said. Pete Hake said he has talked with his daughter-in-law, Kelli, three or four times, and she will come to Enid for the funeral at OBA. He said he expects his son’s body to arrive later this week and the family will escort it to Enid. It will have full military escort, too. Chris Hake and his family, including infant son Gage, were living in Hinesville, Ga. His wife is a Stillwater native. Pete Hake said he is uncertain about burial, but said his son may be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. 
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