Va. Soldier Killed by Explosive Device

Army Pvt. Edwin A. Andino II could sleep through anything.

He didn't wake up the evening his friend began playing drums just a few inches from where he slept.

And he didn't wake the first night an improvised explosive device went off near his Army barracks in Eastern Baghdad.

"We tell that story, and we laugh. And then we use it to remember what kind of a good kid he was, then we laugh some more," said an uncle, H. Dean Settle of Lovettsville.

Andino, who was known as E.J. to his friends, died Sunday when a similar device exploded near his vehicle during combat operations, according to the Pentagon. He was joining in a counterattack after a mortar round was lobbed at his base camp, Settle said. He was 23 and had been in Iraq for 30 days.

Andino, a Culpeper, Va., native, graduated from high school in Madison County in 2001, friends said. He worked as a cook at a Ruby Tuesday restaurant before going to work for a friend's construction company.

He enlisted in the Army on Sept. 3, 2005, exactly one year before the date of his death, said Chad Robison, a friend. Andino had been telling friends that he was interested in joining the military, to "expand his options and to make his mom and his granddad proud," Robison said.

"I told him, 'If that's what you want to do, man, do it. It could be good for you,' " Robison said. "Everyone was proud of him when he did."

Another friend and fellow band member, Jeff Parks, said Andino "was excited" about going to Iraq. "He put it out like, 'This is what I've been training for. This is what I've got to do.' "

"That was his whole attitude," Parks said. "He wanted to make a difference."

Parks said "everybody kind of lost a friend" with Andino's death.

"He was a guy who cared about everything. Pretty much somebody you could definitely count on, who'd always be there to help you out," Parks said.

Andino came from a military family, Settle said, adding that he and Andino's grandfather were among Andino's role models growing up. The family was proud, he said, when Andino decided to carry on the tradition.

"E.J. had his trials, and he put his family through trials," Settle said. "But when he joined the Army, everything he learned from his family came out."

Andino was a skilled guitarist and a fan of heavy metal music. He and Robison, a drummer, played in a band called "Flatline" with Parks and another friend, Robison said. Andino's friends met Monday for a farewell tribute jam, Robison said. It ended with the Black Sabbath song "Paranoid" -- one of Andino's favorites.

"He was a beautiful soul," Robison said. "He was just a great guy. Nobody could say anything bad about him."

The Pentagon said Andino was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division in Wurzburg, Germany.

Survivors include his mother, Cathy J. Andino of Culpeper; his father, Edwin A. Andino; and grandparents Hazel and H.R. Settle, also of Culpeper.