Andrew C. Perkins was running through flames with a blanket trying to rescue a fellow soldier in a burning Humvee Sunday when a second roadside bomb blast killed the 27-year-old Army paratrooper who once lived in Northglenn.

Army officials have told the family that Perkins' actions will likely result in his being nominated for a distinguished service medal, his father, Weldon Perkins, said Thursday from the family home in Belen, N.M.

"You should be proud of him too," Perkins said. "What he did was just absolutely incredible."

Andrew Perkins was one of five soldiers killed in Samara. They were members of the 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, based in Fort Bragg, N.C..

They were on night patrol as they had been dozens of times before, Weldon Perkins said.

Perkins was inside the second Humvee when a roadside bomb hit the lead vehicle and it burst into flames.

"His staff sergeant told me Andrew was the first one to have boots on the ground as he ran to help the soldiers in the lead Humvee," the father said.

Three of them were already dead, but the driver was alive. Perkins ran back to his vehicle and grabbed a blanket and then ran through the flames a third time. He had just begun to pull the wounded driver out when the second blast detonated, killing them both.

Once or twice a week, at the end of his night missions, Perkins would call his dad at about 11 a.m. New Mexico time.

The last time they spoke was Friday. Perkins sounded tired but OK, his father said. He talked about a two-week leave he was getting in April. His tour of duty was scheduled to end in August.

It was not unusual for a few days to go by between calls. But then on Monday, Weldon Perkins had just returned home when he heard his wife Elizabeth in the kitchen saying "No. No. No."

There were four soldiers and a chaplain in dress uniform at the door. For one illogical moment, Perkins said he refused to let them in. If they couldn't come in, this couldn't be real, he reasoned.

"My wife and I, we just crumpled," he said.

Later, he let them in.

Andrew Perkins was born in Amarillo, Texas. He moved with his father to Tucson and later to Denver, where Weldon Perkins worked as an energy trader with Xcel Energy.

Andrew Perkins lived with his younger brother for a few months in Northglenn before enlisting. Weldon Perkins said his son loved skateboarding and just about any sport that had an edge to it. So it seemed natural that in the Army, he wanted to jump out of airplanes, the father said.

During a family outing water tubing in Winter Park, Weldon Perkins said it was Andrew who helped him start dating the woman he would eventually marry.

Andrew was sitting next to Elizabeth in a van as his father drove when he nudged her and asked, "Do you like my dad?"

"Maybe," she replied.

"Would you like to kiss him?"

The couple married about eight months later.

"He was a sweet, sweet kid," Weldon Perkins said. "Give him honor. I loved him so much. I'm going to miss him."

ensslinj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5291

Back to Top