Christopher Messer remembered

PETERSBURG, Mich. - Ricky Perkey, Jr., considers just a handful of people his best friends, and one of them is Army Sgt. Christopher P. Messer.

So when he heard the news that Sergeant Messer, 28, died Wednesday in Baghdad, he was devastated.

"He was just very outgoing and one of the nicest people you're ever going to meet," Mr. Perkey said.

Sergeant Messer, a resident of Raisinville Township in Monroe County and father of one, was assigned to 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, Fort Drum, N.Y.

He died of wounds from an improvised explosive device while serving his second tour in Iraq, military officials said.

Sergeant Messer grew up on Lowe Road in Dundee Township next door to the Perkey family, and became fast friends with Mr. Perkey, now 27.

The two were virtually inseparable while growing up, said Mr. Perkey's mother, Brenda Perkey, 51.

"When you saw one you saw the other. He was like another son, really," she said yesterday, wiping away tears that trickled down her face.

Mr. Perkey said he never would have gotten married in October, 2005, if Sergeant Messer wasn't standing beside him as a groomsman. "I wasn't going to get married until he came back from his first tour," he said.

When the boys were together as kids, they were often seen with another neighborhood friend, Tim Howe, who thinks of Sergeant Messer as a brother.

"We've been best friends ever since we were kids," said Mr. Howe, 29, of Point Place. "What's eating me up is that when we hung out the last time before he went over there, we talked about hunting and fishing. I said, 'Maybe when you get back, we'll do some more.'•"

Mr. Messer graduated from Ida High School in 1997. He joined the Army shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

After he returned home from his first tour, it was hard to find him without his wife, Amie, and his daughter, who will be 3 years old in March.

"They were inseparable," Mr. Perkey said. "Every time you saw Chris after he came home, he had his baby in his arms."

Sergeant Messer resisted going back to Iraq for his second tour because of his family. "He wanted to be with his wife and kid. It was harder for him to go back," Mr. Perkey said.

Sergeant Messer died on his third wedding anniversary.

Because he started his second tour of duty in August, Sergeant Messer never lived in the home that he and his wife recently built in Raisinville Township, just south of Maybee, Mich., Mrs. Perkey said.

Family members at the house declined to comment. A U.S. flag flew at half-staff outside.

Family members at the Dundee Township home where Sergeant Messer grew up also declined to comment.

But Mr. Perkey's father, Richard, 51, said he saw Sergeant Messer's older brother, Jeremy, a few days ago while he was out in his yard.

"He just looked so distant and said he was lost," Richard Perkey said. "I just hugged his neck because there's nothing you can say."

The Perkeys said funeral arrangements have not been made.

At least 3,000 U.S. troops have died since the start of the Iraq war in March, 2003.

Of those troops, 111 were killed in December, making it the deadliest month of 2006 for U.S. troops, military officials said.

Bombs caused about two-thirds of U.S. deaths in December.

The improvised explosive devices, which are capable of ripping through thick armor plating, are often hidden in trash or embedded in the road and can be triggered remotely or set to go off when the vehicles pass.

The American death toll reached 1,000 in September, 2004, and 2,000 in October, 2005.

"These boys over there, they need to be honored because they are over there giving their life for us," Mrs. Perkey said. "Instead of sending more troops in, they need to bring more home."

From the Blade

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