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American military honor guard carryimg the Casket containing the body of SPC Emolo (Photo: Teko Folli/US Embassy) |
Ivoirian-American Soldier Killed in Iraq is Buried in Hometown
US Army Specialist Ebe Firmin Emolo was laid to rest last Saturday in Abengourou, his hometown in eastern Côte d’Ivoire. Emolo, 33, was killed by a bomb detonated near his patrol on April 7, in Zaganiyah, Iraq. His unit was conducting operations in the Diyala River Valley in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. SPC Emolo was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division.
Hundreds of mourners – including US Ambassador to Côte d’Ivoire Aubrey Hooks, Major General David T. Zabecki, the Defense Attaché and other diplomats from the American Embassy, and the King of Indénié, Nanan Boa Kouassi III -- were in attendance at a funeral ceremony honoring this fallen American soldier.
Addressing SPC Emolo’s extended family and boyhood friends, Ambassador Hooks said: "I offer you our sincerest sympathy and heart-felt condolences for his death and your loss. From all I have been told and heard, he was a fine young man with a bright future ahead of him, and his untimely death leaves us all bereft. The American Army has lost a brave and valiant soldier, the United States a concerned, caring and committed citizen. We are the poorer for it."
Major General Zabecki praised Emolo, saying he epitomized everything that is best in the Army, "He was one of our most physically fit soldiers, extremely proud to be in the army and even prouder of becoming a US citizen." (Photo Album)