Hometown: Houston, TX
Branch: U.S. Army 
Unit: Company C, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, NC
Military Honors: Bronze Star, Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: June 24, 2010 - KIA in Jelewar, Arghandab River Valley, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan
Age: 34
Conflict: War in Afghanistan, 2001-2021

Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Edwardo “Eddie” Loredo never knew his father. He and several siblings were raised by their single mother. His family was extremely poor, and Eddie was exposed to violence and significant trauma as a child.

It was a difficult life. As he grew older, despite those challenges, Eddie dedicated himself to breaking the cycle of poverty and to building a better life.

He joined the U.S. Army on October 5, 1999—shortly after graduating from Sam Houston High School. He didn’t tell anyone that he was going to enlist—according to his cousin, Elizabeth Huff, in a Houston Chronicle interview.

Loredo began his Army career at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia. After basic training, he was sent to Camp Ederle in Vicenza, Italy, where he was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 173rd Brigade Combat Team.

The job of an Airborne infantryman involves great uncertainty and danger. Always combat-ready, Airborne infantry forces specialize in rapid deployment—within 18 hours of notification. Often operating under the cover of darkness, they conduct forcible entry parachute assaults on known enemy locations.

In March of 2003, Loredo deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He spent six months in Iraq, then returned to Italy to serve as a traffic management coordinator with the 663rd Movement Control Team.

Making the Army his life

SSG Loredo’s Army enlistment ended in August of 2004. A month later, Loredo returned to duty as an Airborne infantryman with the 1st Battalion, 508 Parachute Infantry Regiment.

His cousin, Elizabeth, recalled, “He called me one time and said, ‘Hey, I’m re-enlisted.’ I said, Eddie, you did your time. He goes, ‘But I enjoy my family’—his Army family. That was his life. He loved it. He loved his career. He loved his friends. He met his wife there.”

While stationed in Italy in 2004, Staff Sergeant Loredo met Jennifer Crook—also a career Army soldier serving at Camp Ederle in Italy. The two were introduced by friends.

Jennifer later told We Are the Mighty that she had been trying to avoid him. “I had been married and divorced very young and had a daughter and just didn’t really have time for all that. And one of my girlfriends kept telling me, ‘I just really need you to meet this guy, Eddie.’ I’m like, ‘No, I’m not doing the setup.’”

Her friends didn’t listen. They secretly brought Eddie to her Sergeant First Class promotion ceremony. Jennifer recalls, “His smile just lit up the room, and he had this energy that I have never seen before.”

They began dating. A month later, Eddie was deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Eddie and Jennifer got to know each other well through letters written during his year-long deployment.

Family life

Following his first Afghanistan tour (February 2005 to February 2006), Eddie proposed and the two were married in February of 2007. Both Eddie and Jennifer were reassigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Jennifer was assigned to the was assigned to HHC 44th Medical Brigade, later reassigned to the 257th Dental Company (Area Support), 44th Medical Brigade. Eddie was assigned to Company F, 51st Infantry (Long Range Surveillance Team), 525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade.

Shortly after receiving the happy news that Jennifer was pregnant, Eddie and the 51st Infantry Team were deployed to Iraq in July of 2007. He’d be away from his new family for 14 months, although Eddie was granted a mid-deployment leave to return for the birth of his son.

Loredo arrived in his sweaty uniform just in time to be there for the birth of Eddie Jr.—with just minutes to spare.

Jennifer recalls how much SSG Loredo loved being a husband—and being a father to Eddie Jr., to his daughter, Laura, from a previous relationship, and to her daughter, Alexis.

She also recalls his love for cooking and his unwavering commitment to fitness, telling We Are the Mighty, “We all have days or periods of time where we’re just not feeling it. Eddie never had that! His guys would tell stories of all the times that they were deployed in the middle of nowhere with nothing. He would figure out a way to work out—like with sandbags or just whatever.”

Double deployment

The Global War on Terrorism would demand a lot of the Loredo family. Eddie returned to combat deployment in Afghanistan in December of 2009, as a squad leader for Company C, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.

The following May (2010), Jennifer’s unit was the first Army dental company to deploy to Afghanistan, where she worked to set up dental facilities and clinics for American troops in the northern part of the country.

Family and friends would help take care of the children while Jennifer served her country in northern Afghanistan, Eddie in southern Afghanistan.

Final mission

In June of 2010, Jennifer was told that Eddie had been severely injured by an enemy improvised explosive device (IED) in Jelewar, a small village in southern Afghanistan’s Arghandab River Valley.

She was immediately flown to the hospital in Kandahar. But it was too late. SSG Edwardo “Eddie” Loredo gave his life for his country on June 24, 2010—one day short of his 35th birthday.

In the dignified transfer, Jennifer accompanied him home to the U.S., landing at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. He was laid to rest with his fellow soldiers, with full military honors, at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. (Section 60, Site 9169).

On August 12, 2016, the Staff Sgt. Edwardo Loredo Child Development Center was dedicated in his honor at Fort Bragg.

Sources
Details provided by Jennifer Ballou, SSG Loredo’s Gold Star Wife
The Houston Chronicle, Jun. 28, 2020: ‘Hero…a good man’ falls in Afghanistan
U.S. Army: Master sergeant talks about resilience, strength, being Gold Star wife
The Evening Sun, Aug. 25, 2010: Pushing progress amid war’s uncertainties
Fallen Heroes Project: Edwardo Loredo
Steel Hearts: SSG Edwardo Loredo
We Are The Mighty: This veteran soldier and Gold Star Spouse is making sure every day is Memorial Day
The Fayetteville Observer, Jun. 29, 2010, via 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment: Explosive device kills Fort Bragg soldier in Afghanistan
The Fayetteville Observer, Aug. 18, 2016: New Fort Bragg CDC dedicated to paratrooper
The Fallen 15: SSG Edwardo Loredo
Burial Site: Find a Grave