A Eulogy for Louis E. Perez, Sr. (1920-2019)

[Note: I was given the honor to deliver a eulogy for the remarkable father of my friend Louis, E. Perez, Jr.  This was not part of his funeral Mass, but was delivered at the end of the viewing at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church in Covington, LA.  Here is Louis, Sr.'s obituary.]

17 August 2019

Dear Susan, Louis, Patricia, family, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and honored guests, peace be with you.

With these words, “Peace be with you,” Jesus greeted His disciples after His death and resurrection.  “Peace be with you” became a greeting shared by Christians with each other, especially in times of persecution.  Peace is a universal human aspiration.  Nobody appreciates and loves peace more than the warrior.  The warrior understands that peace must be won, and maintained.  And peace is sweet indeed, to the warrior. 

Odysseus was eager to lay down his spear and shield and return home in peace to his beloved Penelope and Telemachus.  Cincinnatus laid aside his sword of command and took up his plow in peace on his farm.  Scripture teaches us that there is a time for war, and a time for peace.  And Louis Edward Perez, Sr. served heroically in both.

Louis Perez was born in New Orleans on October 27, 1920 to Anthony and Adriana Perez, of Colombia and Mexico respectively.  Interestingly, one the family’s ancestors forsook his tax booth, collecting revenue for the king of Spain, and followed George Washington into the service of the fledgling United States of America.

Raised by immigrants, Louis Perez was taught to love and treasure our country.  His father Anthony had served the American forces during World War I, and was again called to service in World War II, receiving a waver for his age, providing the new technology of refrigeration for the war effort.  Anthony Perez would rise to the rank of lieutenant colonel.  Anthony and Adrianna raised their son to be a patriot.

And when World War II had broken out, like unto a whole generation of brave men and women, Louis Perez volunteered to serve his country.  He earned his wings, was commissioned a Second Lieutenant, and married his childhood sweetheart Margie Heitzmann all in the same month of March, 1943.  His exploits as a pilot in the US Army Air Corps, flying 700 harrowing combat hours from India, over the Himalayas, to Burma and China – read like an adventure novel.  

Historians have yet to really tell the story of the India-Burma-China theater.  The Republic of China was America’s ally fighting Japanese aggression.  The Americans kept the Chinese supplied, and the Air Corps was crucial to this endeavor.

From mid-1944 to November 1945, Lieutenant Perez flew B-24s that had been converted into cargo planes, flying with technology that could only be described today as primitive.  Many of these “hump pilots” (as they came to be known, flying over the 23,000-foot mountain hump) did not survive.  These officers were responsible for the lives of their crews, and they all braved horrific weather conditions: terrible visibility and bitter cold, equipment pushed to the limits, and the attacks of the enemy.  Hump pilots had to make split-second decisions, often flying by instruments that were not always accurate, as well as by sheer instinct and courage.

Like so many other veterans of this remarkable generation, Lieutenant Perez felt impelled by duty to serve his country.  World War II veterans fought to repel the imperialist aggression of the Japanese in Asia, as well as the National Socialist aggression of the Germans in Europe.  And soon after the end of the war, another form of Socialism – International rather than National in scope – would likewise aggress against innocent people, and demand complete obedience to the state, as an Iron Curtain fell over, and enslaved, eastern Europe.  Communist revolutionaries would also attack and conquer the freedom-loving Republic of China – a tragedy that is shaping headlines to this very day.  All of these concentration-camp ideologies – Imperialism, Nazism, and Communism – stand in stark contrast to the American ideals of liberty, human dignity, private enterprise, and limited government.

And Louis Perez was devoted to these ideals in war and in peace, all throughout his near-century of life on this side of the grave.  He recently reflected on his military service, saying, “We stared down the evil that was in power in Europe, Asia… the entire world.”  He denounced those who promote these same ideologies today, and reminded us why they “fought, spilled [their] blood and died.”  It was indeed to defeat these inhumane systems.  Louis Perez added, “God help us!”

After the war, having won the peace, Louis Perez joined his father in bringing life-enhancing refrigeration technology to Latin America by means of the free market, the wonders of which have elevated countless billions of people out of poverty.

And now, Louis Perez, Sr. has passed the baton of his noble family legacy to his children.  And he has also passed the baton of his legacy of freedom to each one of us here – as our struggle for liberty and limited government continues.  For in war and in peace, the ideas and ideals for which First Lieutenant Perez fought in wartime, and for which Mr. Perez lived in peacetime – are still the difference between freedom and slavery, between prosperity and poverty, between human flourishing and inhumane suffering.

And now we are called to take up the baton that Louis Perez gallantly protected and faithfully handed off to us.  His fight is now our fight.  Whatever your vocation is, whether military or civilian, whether parent or child, whatever your job or calling in life is – if you are an American, you now carry the baton.  We do not know whether we will live in peace or will be called upon to fight yet again.  But in both war and peace, we have heroes who blazed the trail for us, who set the bar for us to emulate, and who continue to inspire us to press on for the love of God and country, of mankind, of hearth and home, of our children, and of generations yet unborn.

Louis Perez has fought the good fight, and is now at peace.  Let us willingly take up the baton, and let us uphold the superlative standard that he has set for us.  And God-willing, as we near a century of life on this side of glory, let us likewise faithfully hand off the baton, with honor and integrity, to those who will come after us in a free and prosperous America and a peaceful world.

For we will one day look Louis Edward Perez, Sr. once more in the eyes, on the day of the resurrection, and we will thank him for the unblemished example that he set for us, and his family will once more embrace him and express their love for him.  

And we will again hear our Lord greet us, even as we greet one another:

“Peace be with you.”  Amen.