ROCKVILLE, MD, US
U.S. Army
SGT, CO B, 1ST BN, 17TH INF REGIMENT, 2ND STRYKER BCT, FORT LEWIS, WA
03/04/2010, GERESHK, AFGHANISTAN
Sergeant Anthony A. Paci of Rockville, Maryland, died March 4, 2010 at Gereshk, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered during a vehicle rollover. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry, 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. Sgt Anthony and his unit were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. He was thirty years old.
Anthony “Tony” Paci, was a family man who had deep ties to Hamilton, Maryland was buried at Arlington National Cemetery exactly three weeks after he was killed in Afghanistan.
Tony attended Walt Whitman High School, but he left a month before graduation in 1997. He earned a general equivalency diploma and later joined the Army.
He served as a mortar man in Iraq for one year. Within days of his return in 2006, he married Erica O’Beirne Paci, whom he had met online. Together, they had three children: Judah 2 1/2 ; Tallulah, 1 1/2 ; and Mila, 3 months at the time of his death.
Friends and family considered him a hero in their eyes, and in Tony’s eyes everyone could see his deep devotion and love for his three children. His passion for them and his wife could be heard in his voice. As Tony’s brother said, “The power of true love is not easy to attain.” said, But this couple had attained it.
In addition to his wife and three children, Tony is survived by his parents and two brothers.
“He which hath no stomach to this fight let him depart. But we in it shall be remembered. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers!! For he today, that sheds his blood with me, shall always be my brother”. Rest in peace my Brothers, you have not been forgotten. (W.Shakespeare)