ROME, Ga. — Army Sgt. William Elliott Allmon, a Floyd County native, was remembered as a red-headed “prankster” and “one of the best” soldiers by about 100 friends, family and colleagues this afternoon at a funeral service with full military honors.
Sgt. Allmon, 25, was killed April 12 in Baghdad when his vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device. The combat engineer was less than three months away from the end of his second deployment in Iraq with a unit from Fort Stewart.
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Staff Photo by Meghan Brown-- Jennifer Allmon holds her 3-year-old son Damien during burial services Tuesday for her husband, Sgt. William Allmon, at Floyd Memory Gardens in Rome, Ga. Sgt. Allmon died April 12 in a bomb explosion in Iraq.
“He loved life and his children,” said his mother, Donna Fortune, before the funeral services at Pleasant Valley South Baptist Church. “He certainly molded me. He was my whole purpose — just my reason for going on.”
Sgt. Allmon also leaves behind his wife of almost five years, Jennifer, their son, Damien, 3; and stepson, Jason “Luke” Johnson, 11. Mrs. Allmon and the boys moved to Summerville, Ga., from Fort Stewart earlier this year so they could be closer to Mrs. Allmon’s family during the 15-month deployment, friends said.
Sgt. Allmon’s father, William Allmon, is from Cartersville and also attended the services, which ended at Floyd Memory Gardens.
Coping with the loss of a soldier in war helps bring a community together, said Jan Johnson of Lyerly, Ga., who lost her son four years ago and now serves as a mentor for Gold Star Mothers, an organization to help families of soldiers killed in combat.
“I just went through my son’s fourth anniversary April 10,” said Ms. Johnson, whose daughter is friends with Mrs. Allmon. “Will being killed two days later brought it back.”
