Veterans Day
VETERANS DAY
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, once again we find our young men and women in harm's way in a foreign land. As they have so many times in our history, Americans in uniform carry the torch of freedom in their hands and the promise of peace in their hearts as they face those who would rule by tyranny and violence. On this Veterans Day, I rise not only to commend our veterans but also to recognize the men and women of the State of Maine engaged on the front lines in the Global War on Terrorism.
Maine is well represented by young men and women serving on active duty in our Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard. Since September 11, 2001, citizen-soldiers from across the State of Maine from all Reserve and Guard components have closed ranks with those on active duty to protect our shores and secure our future.
The men and women from Maine have left homes, jobs, and loved ones to answer the call to duty. Senior Master Sergeant Stephen Valley is among them. Steve, who hails from Millinocket, ME, left the active Air Force in 1994 after nearly eighteen years of service. In 1998, he joined the Air Force Reserve, and despite family challenges, including a father sick with Parkinson's disease, stepped forward and mobilized in November of 2001. Steve served nearly continously in the Middle East since then, including duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, until he retired from active service on November 1. He is a man of courage and character. He represents the best we offer to a world longing for freedom and peace.
Mainers are deployed around the globe. Nearly twenty-five percent of the Maine Army National Guard is on alert, mobilized, or deployed. Maine National Guard soldiers are guarding prisoners at Guantanamo Naval Station in Cuba. Soldiers of Company E, 120th Aviation of Bangor are controlling air traffic in Afghanistan. Members of the 112th Air Ambulance Unit from Bangor are performing medivac missions in Iraq. Soldiers of the 11-36 Transportation Company from Bangor and Sanford are moving supplies across Iraq and Kuwait. Soldiers from the 94th Military Police Company of Maine and New Hampshire are performing police missions across Iraq and are helping to train Iraqi forces to assume security responsibilities.
This past summer, I went to Iraq. I met hundreds of American and British troops. I saw people from Maine performing key roles in rebuilding the country after the fall of Saddam Hussein's brutal regime. In the city of Kirkuk, I ate lunch with five service members from Maine-Specialist Gregory Norster of Phillips, Chief Warrant Officer Brian Mucci of Shapleigh, Specialist Wayne Goodrich from Oakland, Specialist Erin Maynard from Washburn, and Senior Airman Bill Spreng from Ellsworth. The contributions of Mainers to bring freedom to the people of Iraq make me very proud.
The courage and commitment of the American and other coalition troops were strikingly clear during my visit. By night, many of the soldiers conduct raids on pockets of resistance; by day, they renovate schools, rebuild roads and utilities, and help Iraqis take their first steps toward democracy. Despite the continuing danger, the harsh living conditions, and the oppressive heat, morale among the soldiers and Marines I met was high. Army Sergeant Michael Levesque of Winslow put it best when he told me how proud he was to have "helped to give the Iraqi people a precious gift: their freedom." In Kirkuk, where I met Michael, morale was particularly high because the Iraqis there are so grateful. Everywhere we went in this city south of the Kurdish section, local citizens waved and called out "thank you, America!"
By contrast, conditions-both in July and today-remain hostile in and around Baghdad. Our troops face near daily ambushes and sniper attacks. The fighting goes on for many of our troops who must contend with the threat of rocket-propelled grenades, improvised explosive devices, and rogue gunmen.
Of all the places I have visited as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, including Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Korea, nowhere have I found the challenges more difficult and the dangers more present than in Iraq. In the end, the commitment of the Iraqi people will determine whether Iraq will prosper in peace and freedom, or succumb to a violent minority bent on division, destruction, and domination. The dedicated young men and women serving in uniform, from Maine and from all over America, are giving the Iraqi people the opportunity to seize what all humanity desires and deserves.
On this day set aside to honor sacrifice, we must also honor the sacrifices made by the spouses, parents, children and other loved ones of our troops. The families left behind must face the challenges of daily living as they suffer from the separation and from the relentless worry. The news of any casualty strikes a chilling chord in their hearts. Every death, every injury, is a blow to them as they wait, and hope, and pray.
In September, I met with family members of the deployed soldiers of the 94th Military Police company. These families have had to endure two extended deployments in three years: the 94th conducted a peacekeeping rotation to Bosnia that ended in 2001; in 2002, the 94th was called to arms again and is performing admirably in Iraq. The soldiers of the 94th are proud and professional and committed to getting the job done. Their families bear the burden of absence and uncertainty. Among them was Penny Mills, wife of Sergeant Curtis Mills of Shapleigh, ME.
Just one week later, soldiers of the 94th were ambushed in Iraq. Two were severely wounded: Specialist Christopher Kotch of Brunswick and Sergeant Curtis Mills. Soon after, I visited them at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. There was Penny, standing by her husband. We had no idea we would meet again-not so soon, not under those circumstances. Sergeant Mills, with the support of his wife and family, is recovering well. After reconstructive surgery and extensive physical therapy, he will one day return to work as a letter carrier. Specialist Kotch, after his recovery, will likely return to college and a life of possibility and promise.
In times of peace and in times of trial, we rely on our young men and women to step forward for our defense. The citizens of Maine have answered the call. America's first casualty in the War on Terrorism was Master SGT Evander Earl Andrews of Solon, ME, who lost his life in Qatar on October 10, 2001. Today, in Litchfield, ME, a father grieves for his daughter, Army Warrant Officer Sharon Swartworth, who miraculously survived the attack on the Pentagon two years ago but who did not survive an attack on a Black Hawk helicopter in Iraq last Friday. These are but two of the soldiers who died not just in the service of their country, but also in the service of mankind. They did so on behalf of millions of people they did not know-innocent Iraqis, Afghans, and Americans who died on 9-11, and all peace-loving people everywhere.
Our service members and veterans-whether they served in World War I or II, Korea, Vietnam, Haiti, Kosovo, Bosnia, Kuwait, or now in Afghanistan or Iraq-share a common bond: their uniform is not that of a conqueror, but of a liberator. We can never fully pay the debt we owe those who put their lives on the line to advance the cause of freedom.
Nor can we repay the debt we owe those families and loved ones they leave behind. The enormity of that debt was best summed up one-hundred thirty-nine years ago in a President's letter to a mother who lost five sons in the war to preserve this Nation. I will close with the words of Abraham Lincoln:
I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.