W O M E N ’ S H I ST O RY M O N T H B O N U S PAG E S
KILLEEN DAILY HERALD | SUNDAY,MARCH 9, 2025
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Central Texas woman recovers from life-threatening illness, now working in Kuwait BY JOHN CLARK HERALD CORRESPONDENT
Della Perry served 20 years in the military, retired and was diagnosed with cancer not once but twice, underwent successful treatment both times, and is now happily working as a civilian contractor in Kuwait. It has been a rough road the past few years, but Perry said recently in a call from her dorm room in Salmiya, near Kuwait City, that she is doing well and feeling better than ever. “I’m feeling the best I’ve ever felt,” the longtime Copperas Cove resident said. “In the beginning, it was a challenge because I didn’t know how my body would react to the change of working, with all the changes I went through with chemo and everything. My doctor was, like, ‘I can’t believe you’re in Kuwait, working,’ but it has helped me in so many ways.I have to think now; I have to get up and go to work. I’m working with the military, and I understand the military, because I did my 20 years. “I do come back (to the States) every six months and have my blood work and PET scan, and the lab work over here is every three months. They have wonderful doctors over here. So, yes, things are going very well.” Perry was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and moved to Rocky Point, North Carolina, near Wilmington on the Atlantic
COURTESY PHOTOS
Della Perry is a retired sergeant first class and cancer survivor now working as a contractor in Kuwait.
coast, a few months later. She grew up in Rocky Point and graduated from Pender High School in nearby Burgaw in 1983. A brother served in the U.S. Navy and Della wanted to join the Army, but she was only
17 years old and her mother would not give her permission. “I wanted to travel and I knew that was a way for me to get out of that small town, go do something with my life and become somebody,” Perry said.
“My mother said, no, I was too young. So I had to wait until I was 18. When I was old enough, I went to a recruiter by myself and then told my mom I was leaving. She was all right with it then.” After basic training and AIT, Perry headed toher first duty station in Germany. Trained in administration, she worked there in the orderly room, maintaining company records. She also served at Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos) and Korea, then left active duty and joined the National Guard. After five years of weekend warrior duty, she went active duty with the Guard in 1997 and retired in October 2009 from Camp Mabry in Austin with 20 years’ service. When she retired from the military as a sergeant first class, Perry went to school at Central Texas College to study health information management and later went to work for Apple Maps (web mapping service). It was during this time, while she was working in St. Louis, that she received a devastating report from the doctor. “That was when I found out I had cancer,” Perry said. “When you hear that, it is scary, I ain’t gonna lie. I found a small lump on my breast. I waited a couple of days and went to the doctor. That was in July (2021), and they set me up with an appointment for a mammogram in August. When I went in, I saw this lady and she said, ‘We have a radia-
tion doctor that’s been here for 24 years, and what he says, he knows what he is saying. “He said I had a lump the size of a marble, and I said, OK. He said, ‘It’s cancerous,” and he got up and walked out the door. I looked at the nurse and I said, ‘What did he just say?’ “She said, ‘You all right?’ I said, ‘No, I ain’t all right.’” With her health restored, Perry has been working overseas since January 2024. She is a warehouse lead at Camp Buehring, where troops turn in old equipment. The Middle East is notorious for blazing temperatures that sometimes reach into the 120s, but right now it is in the high 60s. A typical day for her begins well before dawn – 3 a.m., to be exact. “We have to leave at 4,” Della said, as she and her roommate prepared to get some dinner. “I get to work at 5:30, and we do a morning briefing, then we go to breakfast. Then, we check our emails, and we relax for a while until people start coming in between, like, 7 to lunch, which is from 11:30 to 1. In the afternoon, we leave at 5:30. It’s a long day.” When she arrived at her assignment in Kuwait, Perry was reminded of the challenges she faced serving in the military, where according to a U.S. Department of Defense report, women comprised 17.3 percent of the active-duty force. PLEASE SEE KUWAIT, 7