And I am honoured - and humbled - to just have been born in the same country, a country much diminished without her.

West Point Mourns a Font Of Energy, Laid to Rest by War

WEST POINT, N.Y., Sept. 26 -- They remember Emily Perez in her many bursts of motion: the diminutive young woman calling out orders to the freshman cadets on the castled military campus of West Point.


They see her sprinting the third leg for Army's 400-meter relay team. Or in the school's gospel choir, filling her lungs and opening her mouth to sing.

Emily J.T. Perez, a determined 23-year-old from Prince George's County, rose to the top of her high school class and then became the first minority female command sergeant in the history of the U.S. Military Academy.


more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092601765.html

Thank you for your service, Emily.

RIP

Thank you Ma'am

She was a very special person, and an outstanding role model for other young women in the military.

May she be long remembered for her life and her service.

Thank you for the OP, GeoWilliam.