Army Spc. Ebe F. Emolo

Died April 7, 2007 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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33, of Greensboro, N.C.; assigned to the 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.; died April 7 in Zaganiyah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit. Also killed were Capt. Jonathan D. Grassbaugh, Spc. Levi K. Hoover and Pfc. Rodney L. McCandless.

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2 N.C. soldiers killed in Iraq by roadside bombs

The Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. — Two soldiers from North Carolina were killed by roadside bombs in Iraq during the past week, family members said.

Spc. Ebe Emolo, 33, of Greensboro, was killed April 8 with three other members of the 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg. Pfc. Brian Lee Holden, 20, of Claremont, was a gunner with the 17th Field Artillery Regiment from Fort Carson, Colo., when he was killed April 9, his family said.

Emolo, who was born in Ivory Coast in western Africa, had two goals: to become a U.S. citizen and join the Army, said his sister, Sabine Wiggins. He achieved both before he died.

“This is something he wanted to do,” Wiggins said April 11. “He loved the uniform. He wanted to be a hero.”

Wiggins said her brother tried to call her everyday, and she last talked to him April 6. Emolo worked as a security officer at Women’s Hospital in Greensboro, where his co-workers said he was proud of his new citizenship.

“He was just a real class-act guy,” said Craig Shaw, who worked with him at the hospital. “He would go out of his way to help people, whether staff, patients or visitors.”

Emolo also is survived by his wife, Charlotte Brown, and a stepson.

Holden was looking forward to two weeks of leave in late April before he died when a roadside bomb detonated near his Humvee. He wanted to spend it with his 20-year-old wife, Amanda, in Myrtle Beach, S.C., said his mother, Leasa DeLozier.

Holden planned to leave the Army next year and start a family.

“We saved every dime for our future,” Amanda Holden said. “Now, I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life.”

Survivors also include his stepfather, Eugene DeLozier.

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U.S. soldier killed in Iraq gets prince’s burial in Ivory Coast

By Parfait Kouassi

The Associated Press

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — He died like thousands of other American soldiers, killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq. But in Ivory Coast on June 30, Spc. Ebe Firmin Emolo was laid to rest as a prince.

Emolo, 33, joined the U.S. Army two years ago and became a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division. He was killed along with three others in April by an improvised explosive device.

While the remains of the other three soldiers have been repatriated to New Hampshire, Michigan and Arkansas, the body of Emolo was sent back to his homeland in eastern Ivory Coast, where he is the direct descendant of the king of the Agni people.

In the town of Abengourou, 130 miles northeast of Abidjan, Emolo’s coffin was followed by hundreds of mourners, including representatives of the U.S. military as well as members of the royal family.

Emolo is a prince, the youngest son of King Nanan Boa Kouassi III, explained Ettien Amoakon, the chief of staff of Ivory Coast’s defense minister, who went to assist in the burial. The crowd wept as he was laid in the ground in a cemetery in his hometown.

“As a soldier, Emolo was one of the best,” said U.S. Gen. Maj. David T. Zabecki, who accompanied the body on behalf of the U.S. Army.

Relatives told the BBC that Emolo first went to America as a student, then married an American woman, before joining the army.