Army Spc. William R. Emanuel IV

Died July 8, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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19, of Stockton, Calif.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany; killed July 8 during a mortar attack on the Iraqi National Guard Headquarters in Baghdad.

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California soldier killed in Iraq mortar attack

Associated Press

STOCKTON, Calif. — A 19-year-old soldier from Stockton was killed on July 8 during a mortar attack on military headquarters in Samarra, north of Baghdad, in Iraq, Department of Defense officials said Friday.

Spc. William River Emanuel IV had joined the military when he was 17, soon after he graduated from an alternative high school. He had been in Iraq since February and was the ninth soldier with ties to San Joaquin County to die since operations began there.

Emanuel had not wanted to come back home because he was having an adventure, and because there was still work to be done, his aunt, Jean Shipley, told the Stockton Record.

Emanuel’s 21-year-old sister, Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Tiffany Emanuel, said she had tried to join her younger brother in Iraq but volunteered too late to be considered. She worried about him, she said.

Emanuel’s mother and sister remembered how he helped neighbors, and how he always beat other family members during their annual Christmastime pancake eating contest, swallowing 16 peanut-butter-and syrup-laden pancakes last year.

While in high school, Emanuel had worked for a landscaping company, bused tables at a local restaurant and worked at a nickel arcade, his mother and sister said. Emanuel had attended the Stockton Covenant Church, his family said, and was very active in the church’s youth group before enlisting.

On July 9, the day his family members found out about his death, Emanuel’s mother, Jean Emanuel, played back for the Stockton Record a message her son had left on her answering machine.

In it, he told her he was sending money home, that he was doing well and that he loved his family.

She cried, saying, “We’re not supposed to bury our kids...Oh God, I can’t do this.”