HONOLULU - An Army officer from Hawaii, praised by teachers and officers as a standout ROTC commander and business student, was killed over the weekend by a sniper in Iraq, the Pentagon said Monday.

Army 1st Lt. Nainoa K. Hoe was gunned down by a sniper as he led a foot patrol on Saturday in Mosul, according to the Defense Department.

Hoe, 27, who was recently married, was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Wash. He had been in Iraq since October.

Beyond his passion for the military and academics, Hoe enjoyed karaoke and body surfing.

"We sang karaoke after our wedding," the soldier's wife, Emily Hoe, said. "It was a big change because with work, he was so structured and so precise. It was great to see him let go like that."

Emily Hoe, a 21-year-old business student at Western Oregon University, is living with her parents in Newberg. She received an e-mail from her husband two hours before he was killed.

"He told me how he was going to love me forever and how he couldn't wait to see me," she said.

The couple married last June at the Bayer estate in Hawaii Kai.

People were buzzing about Hoe's talents even before he arrived at the University of Hawaii, predicting that he would easily become ROTC commander, said Army Lt. Col. James Johnson, professor of military science at the university.

"My concern was that he was not going to live up to expectations," Johnson said.

But he did. Hoe earned the position of commander in the UH Army ROTC program from 2002-2003 and was fourth in a 2002 national ranking of 4,500 cadets, Johnson said.

The rankings are based on academics, excellence in military science and physical fitness.

Hoe also represented the university at the George C. Marshall ROTC Award Seminar, attended by the top cadet from each participating college.

"He was perhaps the best cadet I've ever encountered, one of best cadets this school has ever had," Johnson said.

As an undergraduate, Hoe won the competition for soldier of the year for the Pacific in 1998, according to General Robert Lee, whom Hoe served under in the Army Reserve. "He told me he was worried because he got interviewed for only a couple minutes," said Lee. "But he stood out so much from everyone else, that's all he needed."

Nainoa Hoe grew up in Kailua. He graduated from Kamehameha Schools in 1995 and earned his bachelors degree in management information systems and a master's in business administration from UH.

Hoe won The Fish Scholarship for Excellence, a merit scholarship that paid for tuition and books during his two years in business school.

"Nainoa was a solid kid, very engaged in school and very involved in JROTC," said Kamehameha Schools president Mike Chun. "He really believed in and understood what it was to serve our country."

For Christmas, Hoe's fellow soldiers roguishly commemorated his toughness by printing tire tracks on a dirty gym sock that served as his stocking in Iraq.

A few months earlier, a careless driver had hit Hoe in a crosswalk and run over his leg during a training run near Fort Lewis. Hoe stood up and continued to march, ignoring his company commander's suggestion to wait for the medics.

"It became a standing joke among the guys," said family friend Fred Kobashikawa.

The Hoes had planned to move to Virginia so Nainoa Hoe could serve three years with the Old Guard, a ceremonial unit of the Army. Then he wanted to join the FBI and return to live near his parents in Kailua.

A memorial service is scheduled for Wednesday at Fort Lewis. Kamehameha Schools will plan a memorial service after the family returns, Chun said.

Survivors also include his father, Allen Hoe, an attorney in Honolulu, and his mother, Adele.

Hoe's younger brother, Nakoa, is with the 100th Battalion, 29th Brigade, based at Fort Shafter in Honolulu. The unit is scheduled to leave for Iraq from Fort Polk, La., within a month.

Hoe's family issued a statement Monday saying they appreciated the outpouring of support.

"We want people to continue praying for the troops in Iraq, especially those from Hawaii," the statement said.

Since the March 2003 start of the war in Iraq, one civilian and 51 armed forces members with notable ties to Hawaii have been killed in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.

While some 12,000 Hawaii-based troops deployed to those regions now are preparing to complete their one-year deployments, about 4,700 members of the Hawaii Army National Guard and Reserves are scheduled to leave for Iraq in the coming months.