Hero Dies In Iraq

I bet you don’t see this on CNN. Lieutenant Emily Perez, 23, the first Black woman to serve as Corps Commander Sergeant Major at West Point, graduated in the top 10 percent of her class, out-ran many men, directed a gospel choir…

First Black West Point Commander Dies In Iraq

The nation is mourning the death of Lieutenant Emily Perez, 23 years onl. She was the first Black woman to serve as Corps Commander Sergeant Major at West Point. Lieutenant Perez, who graduated in the top 10 percent of her class, out-ran many men, directed a gospel choir, read the Bible every day. She also headed a weekly convoy as it rolled down treacherous roads, pocked with bombs and bullets near Najaf, Iraq.

As platoon leader, she insisted on leading her troops from the front. She died Sept. 12 when a bomb detonated near her Humvee in Kifl, south of Baghdad. Shortly before shipping out to Iraq with the 204th Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Lieutenant Perez flew cross-country to be a bone marrow donor for a stranger who was a match. 

Lieutenant Emily Perez was the 64th woman from the U.S. military to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. 

To subscribe to or advertise in New York’s leading Pan African weekly investigative newspaper, please call (212) 481-7745 or send a note to brenda@blackstarnews.com
“Speaking Truth To Empower.�