By Rita Howell

Funeral arrangements for Sgt. David A. Holmes Jr. were incomplete as The Panolian went to press for this edition, but his family expects to hold a local memorial service in coming days for the Army specialist who was killed last week in Afghanistan.

Holmes, 34, was the son of Betty and David Holmes of Cotton Plant Road, Batesville. A 1995 graduate of South Panola High School, he had served four years in the Navy and four years in the Marines before his current enlistment with the Georgia Army National Guard.

He died June 26 at Sayed Abad after insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device.

He and his wife LaTonya made their home in Sandersonville, Ga., where they were raising their four children.

He was the fourth Panola Countian to die in  wars of the 21st century and the first to die in Afghanistan, where violence has escalated this year.

Killed in Iraq in 2005 were Cpl. Daron Lunsford, 29, and Cpl. Brandon Presley, 21. In 2003 Pfc. Damian L. Heidelberg, 21, died in Iraq in a helicopter crash.

Heidelberg had been a student at the Batesville Job Corps Center prior to his enlistment in the Army and had listed Batesville as his hometown. He was from Shubuta.

Readers can check the Panolian’s Web site, www.panolian.com, for updated information.