(This is from an Associated Press report via Military.com. I know it’s another “In memoriam” (see below), but if I don’t put these people’s names up, you sure as shit won’t read it in your newspaper. Here’s to another good kid and good soldier)
The first member of West Point's “Class of 9-11” to die in combat was buried at the military academy Tuesday, two weeks after she was killed by a bomb at the head of a convoy in Iraq.
Second Lt. Emily Perez, 23, was leading a platoon when a roadside bomb exploded Sept. 12 south of Baghdad. She was the first female West Point graduate to die in Iraq and the highest-ranking black and Hispanic woman cadet in the school's history. Perez was a Medical Service Corps officer assigned to the 204th Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division in Fort Hood, Texas.
The academy's Class of 2005 is called the “Class of 9-11” because the 2001 terrorist attacks occurred just weeks into the students' freshman year.
Dozens of cadets watched as she was buried in the West Point Cemetery. After accepting the folded American flag from Perez’ coffin, her mother leaned over, put her forehead on the casket and whispered.
Perez was fluent in German from growing up overseas. She also played the clarinet and helped start an AIDS ministry at her church. Before leaving for Iraq, she donated bone marrow to a stranger.
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