Sgt. Dustin Peters moved to Shirley as a teenager where he graduated from high school in 1996. A year later, he joined the United States Air Force, and completed his basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. He later attended technical training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and in November of 2000, was assigned to Little Rock Air Force Base as a noncommissioned officer in charge of equipment support. Loved and respected by those who knew him best, Sgt. Peters enjoyed the Air Force and the opportunity to travel the world while making new friends.

Although he was still relatively young, the troops admired him for his friendship and his leadership. He returned to Arkansas last July after serving six months in Iraq but volunteered to serve again in January with a group of young soldiers, many of whom had never been deployed. "His sole mission to go over there was to take care of those troops," said Master Sgt. Glen Dagen. "He knew the conditions, he knew the ropes. His fear was that he was going to have his young troops from Little Rock (in Iraq) and he couldn't be there to take care of them.". "He had plans," said Lt. Colonel Daniel Hicks. "He was ready to come home, ready to fish somewhere, ready to hunt. He was ready to be home in Arkansas." Tragically, he was killed three weeks before he was to return home after a homemade bomb exploded near the convoy he was traveling with near Baghdad. To those who served with him, he will always personify the Air Force motto, service before self. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and all those who knew and loved him.