Robert Kevin Donor Freeman, a 24-year-old father and Iraq war veteran, was remembered by family and friends yesterday. He was killed April 8 in a fireworks explosion in an underground storage tunnel that killed four other people, including Freeman’s best friend, Neil Sprankle, 24.

Freeman’s family attended Sprankle’s services on Tuesday and his burial yesterday morning before holding Freeman’s services at Nuuanu Memorial Park & Mortuary.

"It’s just been kind of an emotional ordeal for them," said Army Maj. David Hatcher. "For the family it was kind of like losing another brother, losing another son."

Freeman, who was born in the Philippines, joined the National Guard in 2003 and deployed to Iraq in 2005 and in 2008. He was an artilleryman working with cannons and munitions and participated in hundreds of combat patrols in Iraq.

Hatcher described him as an outgoing guy who made friends easily and loved sports, surfing and the outdoors.

"He was an awesome soldier," he said. "We lost a real good guy."

Freeman will be buried with full military honors today at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.

He leaves behind a wife and 3-year-old daughter Maleia, whose handprints were tattooed on his chest, said friend Wes Nakano of Kaimuki.

"His daughter, Maleia, was his life," he said. "When you seen them together, you could not put it into words."

More than 100 people had come to pay honor to Freeman, he said.

Family members of other victims also went to console the survivors.

Priscilla and George Kelii, grandparents of Justin Kelii, 29, of Kaneohe, who also died in the blast, attended Sprankle and Freeman’s services.