Bittiker funeral to be held Wednesday

A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday for Army National Guard, Spc. Robert L. Bittiker, 39, of Jacksonville who was killed Monday in Iraq.

The funeral will be held at Jones Funeral Home in Jacksonville. Burial will follow at Coastal Carolina State Veterans Cemetery with military honors.

The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home.

After serving almost 20 years in the Army, an improvised explosive device detonated near a Humvee that Bittiker and three other soldiers from eastern North Carolina were in, killing all four soldiers that were assigned to the 120th Combined Arms Battalion in Wilmington.

Bittiker enlisted in the National Guard in 1990 and previously served in Bosnia and Iraq. He worked for Morton Trucking Company and owned a taxi cab in Jacksonville.