Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA
Branch: U.S. Army 
Unit: C Company, 467th Engineer Battalion, U.S. Army Reserve, Greenwood, MS
Military Honors: Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal
Date of Sacrifice: June 28, 2005 - KIA in Ad Dujayl, Iraq
Age: 30
Conflict: Iraq War, 2003-2011

Specialist Robert E. Hall Jr. grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated from North Hills High School in 1973, where he played soccer.

He enlisted in the Army Reserve in 1997 and served for three years until his discharge in 2000. In his civilian life, Hall started a family and worked as a driver for a waste management company.

Hall remained available for duty as part of the Army’s Individual Ready Reserve (IRR). According to the U.S. Army Reserve, the IRR “are trained Soldiers who may be called upon, if needed, to replace Soldiers in active duty and Army Reserve units. Many of the Soldiers in the IRR have recently left Active Duty and still have an Army Reserve commitment.”

Just one month short of ending his five-year IRR commitment, Spc. Hall was recalled to active duty to fill a vacancy in a Mississippi unit. Despite the difficulty of leaving his wife and 3-year-old daughter, Hall answered the call of duty to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., the United States and a coalition of allied nations launched Operation Iraqi Freedom with the goal of removing dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime and destroying its ability to deliver weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups worldwide. The operation later shifted to a mission of helping the Iraqi people with security, establishing a new system of government, and fostering economic development.

Spc. Hall was assigned to the 467th Engineer Battalion, U.S. Army Reserve, out of Greenwood, Mississippi. As part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, his unit was sent to a forward base in Ad Dujayl, just 40 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq.

On June 28, 2005, after seven months in Iraq, Spc. Hall was guarding his base’s entry gate when a suicide bomber drove up and detonated a car bomb. Hall, at age 30, was killed in the blast.

For his devotion to duty and willingness to serve his country, Spc. Robert E. Hall Jr. was awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, and an Army Commendation Medal.

Sources
Details submitted by Ms. Debbie Whitfield, Spc. Hall’s mother-in-law
Card photo provided by the family
Military Times—Honor the Fallen: Army Spc. Robert E. Hall Jr.
Pennsylvania Hometown Heroes: Robert Hall Jr.
The Patriot—Soldier Honored: Robert E. Hall Jr.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette—Obituary: Robert E. Hall Jr.
U.S. Army Reserve: Individual Ready Reserve (IRR)
Together We Served: Hall, Robert E, Jr. SPC
Trib Total Media: Daughter was Bellevue soldier’s ‘reason for living’
Burial Site: Find a Grave