In Memory of Mark Edwards

This Post is in Loving Memory of my cousin and friend
Mark Edwards 1964 - 2005


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Member of Erwin 278th dies in Iraq

By Jim Wozniak
Erwin Bureau Chief
jwozniak@johnsoncitypress.com

ERWIN — An Erwin National Guard member who was serving in Iraq and apparently was completing a mission died Thursday in his sleep from a non-combat condition, family friends said.
It was unclear what caused Mark Edwards, a member of Company H, 2nd Squadron, 278th Armored Calvary Regiment, to die, but an autopsy will be performed. Military representatives were coming to Unicoi, where the couple lived, to help his wife, Kim, work through the details of his burial, Erwin Mayor Brushy Lewis said.

A captain and a chaplain from the Army in Kingsport delivered the news to Mrs. Edwards outside the Unicoi County Courthouse, where a co-worker and another county employee had joined her.

Friends of Edwards estimated that he was about 40 years old. Sadie Lovette, who works with Mrs. Edwards at the University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension office at the courthouse, said she attended Love Chapel Elementary School and Unicoi County High School with him.

“Mrs. Edwards just fell apart,” Lovette said. “It makes you stop and just thank God for your own family, that they’re hopefully safe at the moment.”

Edwards apparently had been home about a month ago for a visit. Lovette said Mrs. Edwards had indicated her husband was due back from a mission, which she interpreted to mean that he was scheduled to return to his base, not the United States.

Lovette said this incident is a wake-up call.

“I think people should have to go through just one time to make them appreciate the job that our serviceman do for us,” she said. “It put a whole new meaning for life for me.”