Date of Birth: 02/14/1950
Neighborhood: Kensington
High School: GED
Street: E. York Street
Branch of Service: Army
Rank: SP4
Date of Casualty: 05/21/1969
Province of Casualty: Quang Tin
Philadelphia Memorial Panel: Panel 13
Panel Row: 3
Click on the memorial panel below for a printable photo of the serviceman on this page.
Hawkins left Jones Junior High School while in the ninth grade to get a job, but had to quit six months later to care for his invalid mother. Neighbors remember seeing the only child hanging wash outside his mother's house many times and doing other family chores. He twice tried to enlist after his mother died in July 1967, but was not accepted into the Army until October 1968 when he could meet the age requirement. Hawkins wanted to learn electronics, but was put in the infantry and trained to be a rifleman. The 19-year-old specialist four was sent to Vietnam in April 1969 and assigned to Company D of the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry, 501st Airborne Division. He died in Thua Thien Province on May 21, 1969, during the A Shau Valley campaign. He was survived by his father.