Comrades honor Joseph Perry at Ft. Bragg memorial service

Most of Sgt. Joseph W. Perry’s family and friends held back tears through a memorial service in his honor Thursday at Fort Bragg’s Main Post Chapel.

Only at the end of the service, when Sgt. 1st Class Seaward Guffin began his platoon’s roll call, did the tears start.

Guffin called one name, then another, then another. Each answer was the same: “Here, sergeant!”

Then he got to Perry.

“Sgt. Perry!” Guffin shouted.

No one answered.

He called a second time — “Sgt. Joseph Perry!”

Then a third.

The silence in the chapel was broken only by sniffles and tears. Outside, five rifles fired three times. A bugler played taps.

Perry, a San Diego native who was assigned to the 21st Military Police Company, 16th Military Police Brigade, died Monday in Iraq during a patrol in Baghdad with U.S. and Iraqi police.

His team came under fire. Perry was wounded and taken to the combat support hospital in Baghdad. He died later that day, becoming the second soldier from his company and the fifth from his brigade to die in Iraq.

Perry died a month after his 23rd birthday and about three months before his deployment was scheduled to end.

He was mild-mannered and soft-spoken, his friends said, but he was a rabid fan of the San Diego Chargers and the University of Southern California. He had recently become engaged and had a goofy sense of humor that emerged only after friends got to know him.

He was a confident sergeant who inspired younger soldiers, his friends said.

Thursday afternoon, Perry’s father and fiancee sat near the front of the chapel. About 250 soldiers and friends crowded into pews and stood in the back.

Staff Sgt. Steven Tucker, the noncommissioned officer over Perry, stood at the pulpit and applauded Perry’s optimism, intelligence and work ethic.

Perry always exceeded expectations, Tucker said.

“He wasn’t afraid to do things his way,” Tucker said.

Tucker said Perry looked forward to marriage and to becoming a father to his fiancee’s daughter.

“He was really excited about being that little girl’s dad,” Tucker said. “It wasn’t anything he planned, it just happened, instantly, when he met her.”

Chaplain Jonathan Heitman remembered working out with Perry, how Perry asked for his help to gain 20 pounds of muscle and increase the weight he could bench-press by 30 pounds.

“He met that goal,” Heitman said. “And exceeded it by another 30 pounds.”

Perry joined the Army after graduating high school in 2002. This was his second deployment to Iraq. After he died, the Army awarded him the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and the Army Commendation Medal.

When Guffin, his first-sergeant, took the podium, he remembered Perry as a man who was quiet but fearless.

“He was meticulous,” Guffin said. “Loyal. He stood for all things that are right.”

From the Fayatteville Observer

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