Date of Birth: 04/26/1948
Neighborhood: Southwest Philadelphia
High School: John Bartram High School
Street: Walton Avenue
Branch of Service: Marine Corps
Rank: LCPL
Date of Casualty: 03/28/1967
Province of Casualty: Quang Nam
Philadelphia Memorial Panel: Panel 13
Panel Row: 2
Click on the memorial panel below for a printable photo of the serviceman on this page.
"Quiet, kind, loved to help people, never wanted to miss a day of school," Hawkins' parents said of their son. "Tony" Hawkins sang in the youth choir at St. Paul's Baptist Church, 10th and Wallace streets, and enlisted in the Marine Corps in September 1965 after graduating from John Bartram High School. He was sent to Vietnam and assigned to Company A of the 7th Engineer Battalion. The 18-year-old combat engineer planned to become an engineer when he returned home. He was wounded once while riding in a truck that ran over a mine, and recovered and returned to duty. He died on March 28, 1967, near Da Nang, Quang Nam Province, when a mine accidentally exploded during class instruction. The lance corporal is one of 13 Marines honored at the "Circle of Trees" at the Freedoms Foundation in Valley Forge. He was survived by his parents, three brothers and four sisters.