Matthew Perez’s parents told him that he and his new wife, Jessica, should wait a few years before having kids, to make sure the young couple had their “ducks in a row” before adding to their family. But the young Army paratrooper and his wife had other plans.
“That’s the only thing I’m glad that he didn’t listen to me or his mom, because my daughter-in-law is expecting,” said Jose Perez, Matthew’s father. “So now we’re gonna have Matthew coming back, hopefully.”
Matthew Perez, 20, was killed Sept. 13 from injuries sustained during airborne training at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Johnson, Louisiana. The Army has not released any details on the circumstances of Perez’s death except to confirm that he was injured during parachute training. Task & Purpose has confirmed that a second paratrooper was injured on the same training exercise, though it is not clear if the two mishaps are related.
“It takes a different breed,” Jose Perez told Task & Purpose, his voice breaking as he remembered his son’s life. “He was a different breed. He was built differently.”
Matthew, Jose said, was born more than two months premature.
“He was born at 27 weeks. He was a preemie. It was told to my wife that he was going to have a hard life, and he dealt with hard life, and he was, he was strong. Like I said. he was built differently.”
In 2023, soon after graduating from high school, Matthew joined the Army to be an infantryman. After One Station Unit Training at Fort Moore, he volunteered for paratrooper training with aspirations to earn his way into the 75th Ranger Regiment.
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After basic training and Airborne School, he was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team at Fort Liberty.
He told his family that he’d found a band of “brothers” in the Army.
“My son had a lot of friends there, a lot of brothers. They loved each other,” Vanessa said. “You could tell because we’ve gotten so many calls, so many texts, even a different state, and they’re pouring out their love to us.”
Though Perez was the first in his family to join the military, he wanted others in his family to follow him.
“He was rolling out the carpet for them to join,” Jose said. “He was guiding his cousins.”
Perez married Jessica on May 4, 2024, and, his parents said, fully embraced the roll of dad when he adopted his wife’s daughter. Then just over a month before his death, he told his parents that Jessica was pregnant.
In the long-term, Perez’s parents said, he planned on joining law enforcement and qualifying for a SWAT team. His awards are the Army Service Ribbon and the Marksmanship qualification badge.
From overcoming his own premature birth to the coming birth of his own child, Jose said he hopes his son’s life will be an inspiration.
“Push for your dreams, because that’s what he wanted,” Jose said.
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