North grad killed in Afghanistan (I knew Eddie)

[Omaha Steve]

I knew Eddie. I attend sporting events for North High regularly. Three generations of my family have gone to North.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100707/NEWS01/100709813

Published Thursday July 8, 2010

By Henry J. Cordes
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

On the ground in Afghanistan barely more than a month, Edwin “Eddie'' Wood already had survived one bomb attack.

Back out on patrol Monday as a scout with the Army's 10th Mountain Division, insurgent bombers struck again. This time, the blast claimed the life of Pfc. Wood, an 18-year-old graduate of Omaha North High School.

“He did his duty, like he was supposed to,'' said his father, Tom Wood of Omaha. “He never told me exactly what happened (the first time). Soldiers don't talk about that stuff.”

The Pentagon announced Wednesday that Wood was among two soldiers killed by an improvised explosive in Kandahar. The bomb wounded three other soldiers.
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Wood’s death reflects the recent surge in U.S. casualties as troops have pushed into Taliban-dominated areas in the southern part of the country. He is the fourth soldier from Nebraska or western Iowa to die in Iraq or Afghanistan in the last month.

He also is the first Omaha soldier to die in the nine-year-old Afghanistan conflict and the first from the city to die in either Iraq or Afghanistan in nearly three years.

FULL story at link.