Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Edwin R. Rivera, 28, of Waterford, Conn. was assigned to 1st Battalion, 102nd Infantry Regiment, Connecticut National Guard, Norwalk, Conn. He died May 25, 2010, at National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., of wounds sustained during an attack five days earlier in Afghanistan’s Laghman province when his unit was attacked by enemy forces using indirect fire.

SSG Rivera was a 2000 Waterford High School graduate. Two years later, he joined the Connecticut Army National Guard. SSG Rivera completed the Army's Airborne and Mountain Warfare schools and the Warrior Leader's Course. He trained Afghan security forces, police, and border patrol agents. It was his second deployment to Afghanistan. When asked why he would do a second tour, his answer was - the Afghan children. Rivera told his mother, “When the U.S. soldiers drive by the children will scramble like mad in the dust just to get a pencil. They had nothing.”

Friends remember him as a cheerful, giving person. They said he would go out of his way to greet you and ask how you were doing.

He is survived by his wife, Yesenia, and two sons.