Times Picayune -- Jennifer Hahn last talked to her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Peter J. Hahn, on Monday, the Kenner couple's wedding anniversary and the day before Hahn was killed in Baghdad, Iraq.

"He did get to call me and tell me that he loved me and 'Happy Anniversary,' " she said, adding that he had celebrated his 31st birthday May 17.

Hahn was killed Tuesday, hit by enemy fire at his observation point. He had served in the Army for three years and joined the National Guard in 1996.

Hahn is the 22nd National Guard soldier from Louisiana to die in Iraq, the 21st in combat. He was assigned to the Army National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 156th Infantry Regiment, 256th Brigade Combat Team.

On Thursday, as her phone rang off the hook and friends dropped off flowers and cards, Jennifer Hahn said the grief has been coming in waves.

"It's really hectic," she said. "When I'm busy, I'm OK."

She described her husband as a doting father who called home many times after he left for Iraq in October. The couple's daughter, Kaitlyn, is 6 years old.

"He called us as much as I knew he could," she said. "He was a good father, just a great person. He was just so liked."

He came home for two weeks at Christmas; it was the last time she saw him.

The couple met when they were students at the University of New Orleans. They married in 1998.

"He'll be missed dearly," she said. "He was a really nice guy and so caring."

They didn't know when his service in Iraq would end, but he planned to go back to college and finish his final two years studying investment banking, she said.

Serving his country in Baghdad was something Hahn did proudly.

"It was something that he knew he had to do," Jennifer Hahn said. "He was very proud to do that."

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A memorial service will be held Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at Vineyard Christian Fellowship, 4224 Williams Blvd. in Kenner. His funeral will be in New York.