Emily Perez

Emily Perez, was the first female African American Cadet Command Sergeant Major in the history of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. She was deployed to Iraq in December as a Medical Service Corps officer and killed when a makeshift bomb exploded near her Humvee during combat operations in Al Kifl, near Najaf. Aged 23, she was the first female graduate of West Point to die in the Iraq War.