Edward W. Forrest Jr.

Sunday, April 12 2009 @ 05:54 AM EDT

St. Louis Post-Dispatch -- A soldier who grew up in Fenton died Friday in a suicide truck bombing in the northern Iraq city of Mosul.

Sgt. Edward Forrest Jr., 25, was one of five soldiers killed in the deadliest attack against U.S. troops in more than a year.

Forrest was based at Fort Carson in Colorado and lived near the base with his wife and two sons, ages 2 and one month.

Forrest was a 2003 graduate of Rockwood Summit High School. He was on his third tour of duty in Iraq.

"I asked him not to re-enlist," said his only sibling, Melissa Forrest-Pliner, 30, of Florissant. "I told him I didn't want him to be a hero. I just wanted him to be my brother.

"But he said he owed it to his brothers — that's what he called the soldiers in his unit — to go back and help them finish up the job."

At Rockwood Summit, Forrest was a long-distance runner on the track team. He enlisted straight out of high school.

Forrest-Pliner said her brother "would tell my husband particular things about Iraq, but he would never tell me because he knew I'd worry.

"We've always been close, all of our lives. He and I had a bond that we didn't even have with our parents. I confided in him and he confided in me. And now half my heart's gone," she said.

U.S. military officials said the suicide bomber detonated a ton of explosives hidden beneath grain on a truck. The blast, near a police headquarters, also killed two Iraqi policemen and wounded 62 people.

Forrest's mother, Tina Hessler, lives in High Ridge. His father, Edward Forrest Sr., lives in Overland.

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