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West Point Mourns a Font Of Energy, Laid to Rest by War
Cadets from the U.S. Military Academy mourn 2nd Lt. Emily Perez after her burial at the academy in West Point, N.Y.
(By Tim Roske -- Associated Press)
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"She was sensitive to the suffering of others" but tough-minded, Pollard said. "I clearly remember thinking that she would definitely be the first female president of this country."
After graduating from West Point, she was assigned to the Army's 204th Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division and deployed to Iraq in December. Before she left, she spoke with Laney, her high school track coach. He gave her a journal to write everything down when she wanted to clear her head.
"She was like, 'I'll be okay. Don't worry about me.' That was just the confidence she had in herself," he said.
Her godfather, the pastor of Peace Baptist Church, remembered that same time in Perez's life.
"She was resilient. Her spirit was calm. She was resolute. She believed . . . the real tragedy is to not live while you are alive," said the Rev. Michael Bell, Faith Bell's husband.
She was the 64th female member of the U.S. military to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan and the 40th West Point graduate killed since Sept. 11, 2001. Another female West Point graduate, Laura M. Walker of the Class of 2003, was killed in Afghanistan last year.
Her family chose to hold the funeral at West Point because of Perez's reverence for the institution that challenged her physically and mentally, Michael Bell said.
At the cemetery, in a quiet corner of campus beneath Storm King Mountain, the warm September sun glinted off the silver tubas of the marching band and lighted the rustling leaves' various shades of flame.
Dozens of uniformed men and women gathered in the crowd: West Point's track team, its gospel choir, former classmates and fellow soldiers. When the hearse pulled up to Perez's grave site -- in Section 36, near those of several other young graduates -- the crowd saluted the flag-draped coffin in near perfect unison.
The family, including parents Vicki and Daniel Perez, sat on 10 folding chairs under a small tent facing the coffin, daubing their eyes.
"Honor guard! Attention!"
The guard assembled around the coffin.
"Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there, I do not sleep," Michael Bell read from a poem. "I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glint of snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain."
Then West Point Chaplain Darrell Thomsen addressed Perez.
"In your short time here, you stood the watch with duty, with honor," he said. "Your work on earth is done."
Five guns fired in unison three times. The bugler and the drummer played taps. The bagpiper wailed "Amazing Grace." The marching band finished with the "Alma Mater."
After it was over, Faith Bell reflected on what Perez will be remembered for.
"Her tenacity," Bell said. "Her passion for life. One of the things that was important to Emily was not the fear of death but the fear of not living."
