FORT BENNING, Ga. - It was a bittersweet moment Friday when SPC Aaron Perkins received his Airborne wings. Standing beside his classmates with A Company, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Perkins completed a goal he set years before - to follow in the footsteps of his paratrooper brother, SGT Andrew Perkins, and live the legacy Andrew began.
Andrew died March 5, 2007, in Samarra, Iraq, attempting to rescue comrades trapped in a burning Humvee after it struck an improvised explosive device. Aaron, Andrew's older brother, joined the Army six months earlier and was serving in South Korea when he received the news.
Andrew's death ignited Aaron's desire to become a paratrooper and serve among his brother's comrades in the 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, he said.
COL Bryan Owens, commandant of the U.S. Army Infantry School, served with Andrew in Iraq, and said he worked with the battalion's commander, LTC Viet Luong, to get Aaron into 2nd Battalion.
"After Andrew was killed, (Luong and I) talked about Aaron, who wanted to follow in his brother's footsteps and be a paratrooper," Owens said. "We thought it would be appropriate for him to serve in the same unit as his brother."
Owens said Andrew made an impression on him during his time as the brigade commander.
"He was tenacious, he wasn't a Soldier who would hold back and wait for someone else to step into trouble," Owens said. "He would make things happen on the battlefield. That is what I really liked about him."
After an 18-month stint at Fort Stewart, Ga., Aaron joined 2nd Battalion at Fort Bragg, N.C., in time for its deployment to Iraq in 2008.
"I would run into people at random (forward operating bases) while doing missions and they would say 'I heard you were coming, it's nice to see you,'" he said. "It made it worth it to hear how they talked about my brother ... he really cared about a lot of people and took time out of his schedule to help them out ... and it made a good impression on me to know he was doing exactly what he loved to do."
Aaron said meeting the Soldiers his brother served with and listening to their stories has made the experience priceless and given him insight into his brother's life.
"He really did care about a lot of people and took time out of his schedule to help them out and take them under his wing," Aaron said. "He would literally spend hours with a guy trying to help him work out issues in his life and that completely amazed me. That's what our parents raised us to do and he lived it."
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