Death of a Soldier

By: Teddy
Published On: 9/25/2006 9:43:42 PM

Real life sometimes overtakes social debate and leaps ahead of ancient strictures and mores. That is exactly what happened on the 12th of September 2006 when Second Lieutenant Emily Perez of Fort Washington, Maryland, 23, was killed by a roadside bomb in Al Kifl, Iraq, where she was assigned to the 204th Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division. She was the 64th woman from the U.S. military to be killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 65th followed the next day.
Lt. PerezGÇÖs father and grandfather both served in the Army.  She was born in Heidelberg, Germany, and graduated from high school in Oxon Hill, Maryland, where she was an outstanding student in an area known mostly for gangs, drugs, and despair. Emily Perez as a high school student pushed her church to begin an HIV/AIDS ministry and became an AIDS educator with the Alexandria Chapter of the American Red Cross, whose Board of Governors honored her in 2001 for her work. She could have attended any university based on her grades and public service.  She chose West Point, and there she served as corps commander sergeant major.  She ran track at West Point and sang in the gospel choir.  She graduated in the top 10% of her class and chose as her branch the Medical Service Corps GÇ£because she wanted to help people.GÇ¥

Right before shipping out to Iraq from her assignment at Fort Hood, she flew cross country to be a bone marrow donor for a stranger who was a match, a very painful procedure, but Perez, remember, wanted to help people.  Our military is severely stretched in Iraq, and the fact is, women are in the thick of the combat because they are needed, regardless of picky rules about keeping women out of direct fighting units like the infantry, field artillery, or tanks, that is, out of the front linesGÇö but there are no front lines in Iraq, it is a 360-degree war. Supposedly, women are not allowed to be in GÇ£co-located unitsGÇ¥ that support those combat units, but, as one officer said, GÇ£ItGÇÖs all combatGÇ¥ (in Ramadi), GÇ£itGÇÖs so gray.GÇ¥ 

Women make up 10 percent of the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are doing their jobs, fulfilling their missions very well indeed, or weGÇÖd be hearing about it.  We are not hearing any complaints from the public or Congress because, quite simply, none of the predicted sexual and emotional pitfalls have come to pass, and the effectiveness of our fighting units has not been trashed.  This is not to say that sexual harassment has not occurred, but it has been dealt with.  As for the rising toll of women killed, well, says Charles Moskos, military sociologist at Northwestern University in Illinois, the public GÇ£would rather have someone elseGÇÖs daughter die than their son.GÇ¥

Kind of makes moot all the recent political posturing and squabbling about women in the military, and the character and ability of black Americans, doesnGÇÖt it, since Lt. Perez was both.

(Based on reports by Lori Arnold in washingtonpost.com on 22 September, an article by Lizette Alvarez in The New York Times 24 September, and by 8ackgr0und N015e at http://www.political...)

Comments



I'm sorry. (Matt in VA - 9/25/2006 9:55:07 PM)


The meat grinder (Teddy - 9/25/2006 10:06:54 PM)
Thank you. So this unnecessary war continues to eat our children. in Perez we lost a future leader and a truly quality human being. I think what bothered me most was the comment by Charles Moskos, that people would rather have some one else's daughter die than their son." Of course.

What a strange war we are fighting, where our elected leadership tells us to go shopping, and asks no sacrifice of civilians, and fails to provide returning veterans with adequate health care. And I understand that Bush and Rumsfeld have ordered a carrier strike force to the Persian Gulf. Can they really be planning war with Iran when our military warns against further stretching of our armed forces?



Sorry (Gordie - 9/25/2006 10:36:14 PM)
Thank You for all you have done Lt. Perez. I am sorry you had to pay the ultimate sacrifice. Prays for a peaceful place.


Thanks you, Lt. Perez. (Kathy Gerber - 9/25/2006 10:42:38 PM)
And thank you, Teddy, for reminding us why we are doing all of this.