Edwards serving aboard Navy's USS Donald Cook

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Douglas A. Edwards, son of Kaye and Douglas Edwards of Cape Girardeau, and his fellow shipmates are in the middle of a scheduled deployment while assigned to the guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook, homeported in Norfolk, Va. Edwards' unit conducted more than 4,000 sorties and provided surveillance, reconnaissance and close air support to ground forces in Iraq. Edwards is a 1999 graduate of Central High School. He joined the Navy in August 2001.

-- From staff reports