Kenneth Hobson Sr. says the last 24 hours have been “like a big, bad dream, and it’s going to end soon.”
“But,” he added, “I know it isn’t.”
His son, Army Sgt. Kenneth R. Hobson Jr., 27, was among at least eight Americans killed Friday morning when a bomb exploded outside the United States Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.
He was the senior Hobson’s only child. The dead sergeant’s wife, Deborah, is trying to return with their daughter, Meghan, 2, to the Hobson family home in Lamar, Mo., a town of 4,700 about 120 miles south of Kansas City, Mo.
Another victim, Arlene Kirk, had just returned to Africa after spending six weeks in the U.S. visiting relatives, said her brother, Dennis Bradley, in a phone interview from South Bend, Ind.
Bradley said Kirk, 50, and her husband, Robert, had spent about three years in Kenya.
Robert Kirk was working as a project director for the State Department. Arlene Kirk had found a job as an accountant in the Air Force’s budget department about six months ago, Bradley said.
Bradley said he was happy his sister was able to spend time with their elderly parents in South Bend–where she grew up–before the deadly blast.
“She was a terrific mother and wife. She was just a very supportive person, whatever was happening. She was terrific. She was helping my parents, helping them however she could,” he said.
The couple had three children. Their youngest, a girl, died of cancer at age 5 in 1992, Bradley said.
A third victim, Molly Huckaby Hardy, 51, had spent 26 years as a State Department employee.
A native of Valdosta, Ga., Hardy had been waiting for almost two months to be relieved of her duties in Nairobi, her mother said Friday.
“She was (ready) to come home,” Jayne Huckaby said at her Valdosta home. “She was supposed to be home June 15. She was waiting for someone else to come over to take her place.”
The elder Hobson, disabled during a bombing attack in Vietnam, knows of the risks of soldiering. But his son’s posting in Nairobi hardly seemed cause for concern.
“He never gave me any reason to worry,” Hobson said. “He never indicated that he felt any danger at all. He loved it over there. He liked going on safaris and things.”
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Kenneth Hobson Jr. joined the Army after graduating from Nevada High School in 1989. He was assigned to Nairobi in in March, the Army said.