[link|http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092601765.html|http://www.washingto...006092601765.html]

"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.

Now she has another distinction. The second lieutenant was buried Tuesday at the academy, the first female graduate of West Point to die in Iraq"

[...]

What a terrible waste. Imagine what these young people would accomplish, if only they were allowed to continue their lives. All that education, all that training, all those hopes and dreams, gone.

She was 1 of 71 Americans dead so far this month.