Well Done; Be Thou At Peace

The event that everyone in my class has dreaded, but knew would eventually come, came to pass last Tuesday evening.   We lost our first classmate, 2LT Emily Perez, the night of 12 September 2006, to an improvised explosive device (IED) in Iraq.  She was a member of 204^th SB, 2BCT, 4ID (M). 

I heard the news from another classmate of mine, Abby, while in the DFAC for lunch on Friday.  The news of Emily’s death came as a surprise, especially because she is the first one of us to go.  Last year I was told about the supposed death of a ’04 grad, but from everything I’ve gathered it was a false rumor.  I didn’t want to repeat the news of her death to any of my classmates until I heard something more official, so when I got back to my desk I started looking up the reports from that day.  At first I couldn’t find the report and gave up my search thinking that it was a bad rumor, but later that day after receiving word from another of my classmates about her death, I started looking again.  This time I found the report and the news finally sunk in.  The rest of the night I was in a slight state of shock. 

            I didn’t know Emily very well while we were at West Point, but it would be hard to not have a few memories of her when there were only 191 other females who entered West Point in my class, and even fewer who graduated.  We may have been paired together plebe year in Combatives, but I am not certain.  Most of my memories of her are from Firstie year when she was the Brigade CSM.  Though we were not close, she will be missed. Her family, friends, and unit are in my prayers.