Hai Ming Hsia

Friday, August 04 2006 @ 07:54 AM EDT

New York Daily News -- A New York soldier who joined the Army at age 33 to help support his newborn son was killed in Iraq Tuesday when a roadside bomb cut him in half, his family said yesterday.

Spec. Hai Ming Hsia, 37, was riding in a combat convoy near Ar Ramadi when the explosion tore his vehicle apart, they said.

"President Bush took away my son, my only child," Hsia's grieving mother, Nelida, 66, said last night. "Now I have none."

Sitting in the living room of her Chinatown apartment, the mother explained that her son joined the Army in 2002 because his son, Brendon, 3, was on the way and his job as a security guard couldn't support a family.

She said he spent three years in Iraq only to have his hitch extended. He came home on leave earlier in the summer but returned to Iraq a month ago.

"He didn't want to go back," the mother said. "He already missed out on so much with his son and his life, especially with his son. They were inseparable. He took him everywhere when he was home. He was his life."

Hsia's father, Ting Fang, 78, a retired chef, said quietly and sadly, "He was my only baby, so I have a pain in my heart."

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