
DES MOINES, Iowa — A Guttenberg man killed in combat in Iraq was unique, “one of a kind” from the first day of his life, his mother said Friday.
Army Reserve Cpl. Stephen D. Shannon was “by no means a saint,” his mother Joan Shannon said Friday, “but definitely a hero.”
Shannon, 21, was killed Wednesday in Iraq. The military confirmed his death for the first time on Friday, and his family, including his mother, father and three siblings, gathered at the family’s rural Guttenberg home for a press conference to talk about his life.
Shannon was a combat engineer with the C Company, 397th Engineer Battalion, in Wausau, Wis. The unit arrived in Iraq in September,...