Jason Robert Harkins

Thursday, May 10 2007 @ 05:54 AM EDT

Gainesville Times -- Jason Robert Harkins knew he was fighting for a cause. He also knew he might die for that cause.A Cleveland family's worst nightmare came true on Sunday when they learned that their 25-year-old son had been killed in Baghdad, along with five other men in his platoon.

"From one minute to the other is tough," Harkins' aunt, Gail Nix, said Tuesday. However, "We feel blessed to have Jason as long as we did."

Harkins, a U.S. Army sergeant, was serving with the Striker Brigade, second infantry based in Fort Lewis, Washington. It was his second tour of duty to Iraq.

"He said he'd seen things that we don't want to see," Nix said.

A 1999 graduate of Habersham Central High School who also attended White County High School, Harkins joined the Army Reserves in 1998. He enlisted in the Army five years later.

He was deployed to Iraq for the first time in October 2004, and began his second tour in June of last year.

While he was originally scheduled to return home next month, his tour had been extended to October.

Three weeks before he was killed, Harkins pulled a fellow comrade from under fire, catching a bullet in his helmet. Four soldiers were injured in the incident and are now recovering.

As a result of his efforts, Nix said Harkins will receive a Bronze Star with a "V" for valor.

"He knew he was fighting for a cause that was needed for us," she said. "He took great pride in his work."

Nix said Harkins, whose father is retired from the Army, wanted to be a soldier from the time he was "just a little bitty boy."

Harkins would carry a play gun around, as well as a sword stuck down the back of his shirt.

"He just ran around like that all the time," Nix recalled.

Harkins grew into a man who valued his friends, family and his faith.

"Jason was a very devout, Christian man who loved his family intently," Nix said. "He was one that witnessed and taught these other boys over there (in Iraq) about Jesus."

Harkins is survived by his parents, Alan and Nancy Fritchey and Bobby and April Harkins, who all live in Cleveland.

He also has two brothers, 17-year-old Matt and 11-year-old Daniel.

"Matt looked up to him as a hero," Nix said. "They were very, very close."

In January 2006 Harkins married Emily Renee Cook of Gadsden, Ala.

His stepmother, April, introduced the pair. She was originally from Alabama and had baby-sat for Emily since she was a little girl.

Nix said Emily, who lives in Washington, is doing "as well as can be expected."

While funeral arrangements are incomplete, Nix said the service will be held at Concord Baptist Church and Harkins will be buried at Memorial Garden in Cleveland.

Fort Lewis will have a memorial service for the men on Tuesday.

Nix said in expressing their condolences, friends have told Harkins' family what a good son and nephew he was.

But the family doesn't want to take credit.

"We want God to show through this," Nix said. "That's what Jason would have wanted."

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