CAMP TIGERLAND, Iraq — Sgt. 1st Class Peter J. Hahn’s memorial in Baghdad was two days before today’s mix back home of parades, barbecues and summertime celebrations.

Hahn, a 31-year-old with the Louisiana National Guard, died May 24 during a drive-by shooting on a street in Iraq.

He was standing in the turret of a Bradley armored vehicle, according to a spokeswoman from the 256th Brigade Combat Team’s public affairs office. Spc. Jack Venable, Hahn’s gunner, was next to him. The bullet went through a notch in Hahn’s protective vest in the chest, Venable said Saturday after delivering a eulogy for his friend.

“I think he saw them first,” Venable said, “’cause he fired the first shot. I was sitting. He was standing.”

The chapel at Tigerland, part of the U.S. military’s massive Camp Victory base near Baghdad Airport, has had 30 memorials since the brigade arrived in Iraq in late October, said Lt. Col. Robert Baker, the head chaplain.

“This is the third one we’ve done in a week,” he said after Saturday’s service.

Hahn’s company, Company C, falls under an infantry battalion made up of guard members from both Louisiana and New York, Hahn’s home state. That company of about 100 people has been hit hardest. Nine have died in seven months, according to Baker.

One memorial in January was for seven men, he said. A Bradley was hit by a massive roadside bomb and six men from Louisiana and one from New York were killed. Four were from Houma, La.

On May 23, the memorial was for two men from another infantry battalion, the 1st Battalion, 156th Armor Regiment. Spc. Bernard L. Sembly, 25, of Bossier City, La., and Sgt. Robin V. Fell, 22, of Shreveport, La., were shot while on foot patrol in Baghdad.

The crowd at the service, like Hahn’s on Saturday, was standing-room only, said Staff Sgt. Josh Robert, 25, of Breaux Bridge, La.

“We’ve only got about 100 people in the company, so you know everyone,” Robert said. Another soldier from their company, Cpl. Eric Broussard had become good friends with Sembly.

“We got pretty tight,” Broussard, 23, said while on patrol Friday afternoon in Baghdad. “It touched me pretty deeply. It had happened to other companies. But you don’t really feel the effects of it.”

Both Robert and Broussard didn’t tell anyone at home about it. They expected their mothers would have heard on the local news, but these soldiers were from Shreveport, more than 200 miles away from Robert and Broussard’s Breaux Bridge home.

“Nobody really heard of it,” Broussard said. “My mom, she’s already worried enough.”

Venable also said he didn’t tell anyone at home about Hahn’s death. “I don’t call home ’cause they’ll think I’m in danger,” he said.

Spc. Rebecca Courville called her mother on May 23. Earlier in the day, she had been with Staff Sgt. Russell J. Verdugo, 34, of Phoenix, who was called to a street in Baghdad to help disarm a homemade bomb. A second, still-hidden bomb exploded instead, killing Verdugo and injuring three members of Courville’s platoon with the 1088th Engineers Battalion.

“I called and talked to my mom to let her know it was OK, before word got out,” the 21-year-old Louisiana National Guard member said.

Courville said her family really never celebrated Memorial Day back home.

Another soldier, Sgt. Robert Castille, 23, of Opelousas, La., said his family treated the holiday about the same as any other.

Today, in Iraq, Castille said, he didn’t expect to spend much time reflecting.

“Every day looks the same,” he said.