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Central Illinois soldier killed in Iraq

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| Tuesday, April 8, 2003 11:18 PM CDT | () comments

Associated Press

MALDEN, Ill. � A 27-year-old Army engineer killed in a grenade attack in Iraq transferred to a different military unit seven months ago because he wanted a better shot at going into combat, his father said Tuesday.

Staff Sgt. Lincoln Hollinsaid left his job as a desert warfare trainer at Fort Irwin, Calif., in October and joined the battle-ready 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Ga., said Dan Hollinsaid.

"He wanted to go. He was proud of what he did. He was proud of the Army," said Hollinsaid, sitting at the kitchen table in the family's home in this rural town of 380, about five miles from Princeton.

The 1993 Princeton High School graduate was driving a crane over a berm when it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, said Hollinsaid, who got the news when Army officials knocked on his door about 12:15 a.m. Tuesday. According to the Pentagon, he was killed on Monday by enemy fire.

"You know this is something that can always happen; that's what war is. So you kind of brace yourself, knowing it could happen but hoping it won't," said Hollinsaid, an insurance agent in Princeton.

Hollinsaid said his son was working for a construction company when the Army bug bit him.

"A friend he worked with had been in the military and started telling Linc about it, and he just got infatuated with it," he said.

Hollinsaid joined the Army in 1995 and was sent to the Middle East on Jan. 22, just after spending nearly a month at home for Christmas, his father said.

"I wouldn't trade that time for the world," Hollinsaid said.

He said his son loved two things � the military and the outdoors.

"When he wasn't marching or doing something for the military, he was marching through the mountains on his own," his father said.

He hunted and four-wheeled in a "truck he was in love with," Hollinsaid said. "Fishing was his big thing � anytime, anywhere."

The young soldier also taught himself to play the guitar, along with his brothers � Kevin, 21, who lives in Colorado and Adam, 30, of Rockford, a former Marine reservist.

"Those two were very close and very competitive. When Linc went in the Army, they used to tease each other about the Army being better than the Marines," their father said.

The Army sergeant grew up on Lake Wildwood near Varna, about 30 miles southeast of Princeton. The family moved to Malden when Hollinsaid was a junior in high school.

Teachers recalled Hollinsaid as a "pleasant, hardworking young man" who graduated from Princeton High School a half-year early, said Superintendent Andrew Bertram.

"When war hits this close to home, it's going to really bring the reality of war home to the young people and all of us," Bertram said.