Based: Ft. Bragg, N.C.
21st Military Police Company, 16th Military Police Brigade, XVIIIth Airborne Corps
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: October 2, 2006
Muhallah, Iraq
Engaged
Gender: Male
Hometown: Alpine
High School: Granite Hills High (El Cajon)
Burial: Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego
Joseph W. Perry's life was bookended by association with the Army. He was born 23 years ago in a military hospital in Wurzburg, Germany, to a mother serving in the Army as a Russian linguist and a father who was a combat engineer. Perry died Oct. 2 from a sniper's bullet while on a mission in the Dora Market area of southern Baghdad.
An instinctively shy and independent sort, the lanky young man blossomed in high school, where he was surrounded by a large circle of friends, said Taryn Roscoe of El Cajon, Calif., who counted him as her best friend. He participated in roller hockey leagues, and as a freshman and sophomore played wide receiver on the junior varsity football team at Granite Hills High School in El Cajon.
Perry entered his senior year of high school at loose ends about his future. The events of Sept. 11, however, instantly galvanized all his uncertainties into a single resolution: to join the Army and do his part for his country, which he saw was clearly headed for war.
Two months after graduating in June 2002, Perry embarked on a five-year enlistment and was trained as a military policeman. During his first tour in Iraq, he was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for valor. He was a few months into his second tour there when he was killed.
In addition to his mother, Kirsten Yuh, Perry is survived by his father, Everett Perry, and stepmother, Melissa Perry, of Riverbank in the Central Valley; his stepfather, Vernon Torres of Alpine;, and two half brothers, Tyler and Devin Perry.
Read the whole LA Times article about Army Sergeant Joseph W. Perry here, and read a salute to him here and find more here.
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