PITTSBURGH (AP) -- An Army Reserve cook from western Pennsylvania was killed by a land mine while
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- An Army Reserve cook from western Pennsylvania was killed by a land mine while hauling supplies in Iraq, his mother said Tuesday.
Spc. Eric R. Hull, 23, a married father of two young children from Uniontown, was a member of the 99th Regional Support Command's 307th Military Police Company out of New Kensington, said his mother, Deborah Hull.
Military personnel visited the home of Hull's mother and father Monday, but did not provide many details of his death, family members said.
But a fellow reservist who was a passenger in the vehicle Eric Hull was driving at the time of the explosion said the two were returning to Baghdad with supplies Monday when the vehicle drove over the mine, Deborah Hull said.
Officials from the 99th's headquarters in Coraopolis did not immediately return phone messages left by The Associated Press on Tuesday. The Defense Department said it did not have any information about Hull to release.
A 1998 graduate from Uniontown Area High School, Eric Hull was married to Missy Hull, 24, for almost five years. The couple had two children -- Mia Nicole, who will be 3 in September, and 1-year-old Dominic.
Workers recently completed work on the couple's new home and Deborah Hull said her son never got to see it.
"He always had a grin on his face. He was such a happy-go-lucky person. The only thing he wanted to do was be at home with his children and his wife; he loved her from the moment he laid eyes on her," Deborah Hull said.
Eric Hull worked at numerous restaurants in the Fayette County area and, most recently, he worked as a chef at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Spa.
Before he and other reservists were called to their mobilization site at Fort Dix, N.J., Eric Hull had graduated from the Westmoreland County Community College and was lining up a job to lead a school cafeteria kitchen, Deborah Hull said.
Her son played several defensive positions for his high school football team, as a child collected He-Man action figures and baseball cards, and was an Eagle Scout, Deborah Hull said.
Eric Hull's true talent, however, was in the kitchen. While his 19-year-old sister, Ashley, who is stationed in Germany with the Army, loved to help their father in his garage, Eric Hull liked to follow his mother, aunts and grandmother around in the kitchen. Sometimes, he would surprise his family with fresh-baked whole wheat bread, his mother said.
"He made the best Alfredo you'll ever taste," she said.
The family was making funeral arrangements Tuesday.