Andres Perez joined the US Marine Corps for discipline, camaraderie and as a means of obtaining a college education.

Andres Hilarioestra Perez was born in Santa Cruz, California, on July 1, 1983, to Hipolito and Yolanda Perez and was raised in the Live Oak district of the county along with his sisters, Sandra and Elvira. He attended local elementary schools and entered Harbor High School in the fall of 1997. His large stature provided the football team with the extra strength they required to reach the 2000-01 playoffs. Perez' teachers found him to be a well-grounded youth with a wide range of friends. Andres took pride in his Latino heritage and loved to sing the traditional ranchera music of Mexico.

Following graduation from high school in 2001, Andres Perez enlisted in the US Marine Corps and completed his basic training and school-of-infantry training at Camp Pendleton, California. Upon completing his training he was posted as a security guard at a naval facility in Norfolk, Virginia. After two years of barracks duty, he was reassigned to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Division of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at the USMC base camp in Iraq.

On November 14, 2004, during the fighting at Fallujah, Iraq, Lance Corporal Andres Perez was killed in action. His body was recovered and returned to Santa Cruz and following a funeral, was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery.

(CBR; Fallen Heroes of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Remembering the Service Members who died in the Service of their Country, http://www.fallenheroesmemorial.com/oif/profiles/perezandresh.html, [16 September 2008]; SCSn November 16, 2004 1. Holy Cross Cemetery headstone)