Fairmount soldier killed in action
By TOSHUA E. PHILLIPS

A moment of silence will be held today at Madison-Grant High School in
memory of 24-year-old U.S. Army reservist Spc. Joshua Lee Hill.

The Fairmount native was killed Sunday in a roadside bomb explosion while on
a mission in Kandahar, Afghanistan, along with Sgt. Kevin Akins of
Oglethorpe, Ga., Staff Sgt. Joe Ray and Sgt. Anton Hiett.

Hill, of the Asheville, N.C.-based Company A 391st Engineering Battalion,
leaves behind a close-knit relationship with his parents, Susan and Terry
Hill.

"I'm so proud of my son," Terry Hill said Tuesday. "He was a soldier that I
couldn't be. You don't know how that made me feel. I served in the Army as a
tank driver."

Joshua was a short-timer.

"He called me on Saturday and said, "'Dad, I only have 30 days, 12 hours and
16 minutes left before my flight lands in Indianapolis,'" the father
reflected with tears welling in his eyes.

During that phone conversation, Joshua said he was going to Kandahar but
couldn't disclose details.

Joshua served two years and 11 months and had been in Afghanistan for nearly
a year.

"He was ready to get out. He'd seen enough over there."

The soldier eagerly awaited getting home to see his two children and wife,
Alexis.

Having his first child, Jalin, now 6, was partially why Joshua joined the
Army.

"He was having a baby, and he wanted to do the right thing," Terry Hill
said.

Being a young father, the soldier also attended Indiana Business College in
Marion, where one semester hung in the balance before obtaining his
registered nursing degree.

Enlisting in the army was a means to pay for his education, the father said.

The only child of Terry's loved NASCAR, the Colts and hanging out with best
friend Brandon Zirkle, particularly.

"He was just a really good guy," said Brandon Zirkle, who's known Joshua
since seventh grade.

"Joshua and my grandsons Jason Knipp and Brandon Zirkle played junior high
school basketball together," said Shirley Zirkle. "It made me sick at my
stomach when I heard the news, because Joshua was like one of my grandsons."

Terry was shopping at a Fairmount grocery store when the news of the four
troops killed spread over the radio.

"I knew right then and there, because Joshua told me that he was going to
Kandahar," he said.


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