[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 76 (Thursday, June 16, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 16, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
               VETERANS OF SOMALIA--WE MUST NEVER FORGET

                                 ______


                         HON. ROBERT K. DORNAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 16, 1994

  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to include in the Record the 
final five stories of American soldiers killed in action in Somalia 
last year. We must never forget.

               Before His Own Death, He Mourned a Somali


                       ssgt. ronald n. richerson

       The First Southern Baptist Church in Portage, Ind., across 
     the street from the house in which SSgt. Ronald N. Richerson 
     grew up, became a central part of his life. Max Richerson 
     says he raised his children the way he was raised--to have 
     faith and to serve God.
       ``We brought him up that way,'' Richerson says. ``It didn't 
     seem--it never does when they're kids--like it was going to 
     take hold, but when he got up in high school, he got to where 
     he'd go over to the church and read his Bible and pray. When 
     he came home on leave, he always went over there.''
       Ronald Richerson, 24, died Aug. 8 when a remotely detonated 
     mine exploded while he was on patrol in Somalia. He had been 
     with the 300th Military Police Company, Fort Leonard Wood, 
     Mo.
       The other focal point of his life was the military, his 
     father says. Max Richerson says he had expected his son to 
     enlist.
       ``He always had an interest in it. When he was little, he 
     liked playing Army. Even when he got up to be a teenager, he 
     had buddies that would go back here in the woods and play 
     Army.
       ``He loved his country. It never surprised me at all when 
     he said he wanted to join the Army. I was all for it. God and 
     country. That's the way I was brought up, and that's the way 
     we brought up all our kids.''
       Ronald Richerson took to the military life. He fired 
     marksman and completed air assault and SWAT team training. 
     ``He was very dedicated,'' Max Richerson says. ``He was 
     always willing to give a hand and always volunteering to help 
     somebody learn something.''
       The tour in Somalia somehow brought together his faith and 
     his sense of service. Ronald Richerson had planned to stay in 
     the military, until he saw the starving and the sick in 
     Somalia. Then, Ronald and his wife, Teresa, began thinking 
     about going back to Somalia as missionaries.
       But even as he saw the need to help the Somalis, Ronald 
     Richerson also saw the danger. He talked to his parents after 
     his unit had encountered an ambush. He had shot and killed a 
     Somali.
       ``He'd been ambushed three times,'' Max Richerson says. 
     ``He called here the last time he was ambushed . . . They 
     were hiding in the bushes beside the road and started 
     shooting at him and throwing grenades. And he had to kill his 
     first person. He was all upset about that.''
       Ronald Richerson talked about dying. The elder Richerson 
     says the family is comforted knowing he had been aware of the 
     possibility and had accepted it.
       ``He said, `I don't think I'm going to die over there, but 
     if I do, that's what I'm in the service for,''' Max Richerson 
     says. ``He seemed to be willing to give up his life for his 
     country.''
       ``It did help us, knowing that he felt the way he did.''
       In addition to his family's memories, Ronald Richerson left 
     behind his favorite Bible passage, from Isaiah:
       ``But they that wait upon the Lord shall mount up on wings 
     as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall 
     walk and not faint.''

             A Team Man All His Life, He Was a Proud Ranger


                         sfc matthew l. rierson

       Their names--Matthew, Jacob and Kaleb--evoke images of 
     biblical characters, searching earnestly in some historical 
     place for morality, equality and freedom. Surely that 
     comparison would sit well with SFC Matthew L. Rierson, if the 
     eldest of the trio were alive to hear it.
       Jacob, 5, and Kaleb, 2\1/2\, ``are very curious boys, and 
     Matt never tired of explaining to them, or exploring with 
     them,'' says Matthew Rierson's widow, Patricia of their two 
     sons. ``The nature of the Army was such that he couldn't 
     spend a lot of time with them, but when he did, they spent a 
     lot of time outdoors, playing and exploring * * * father-son 
     bonding.''
       She says her husband joined the Army after high school 
     ``for the adventure and experiences. He heard that he could 
     get in the Ranger battalion, he wanted to be an elite soldier 
     * * *.''
       Matthew Rierson, 33, was a ``team'' man. He spent much of 
     his high school years on the football team and wrestling 
     squad. He was a competitive pistoleer, but got more 
     satisfaction out of getting to know the other guys who 
     participated.
       And his wife of 9\1/2\ years says he was especially proud 
     of being a member of the Army's Special Forces Command, ``but 
     it wasn't so much about the daring missions they 
     orchestrated, but about how well his unit worked as a team, 
     how they planned together and were successful at carrying out 
     their tasks.''
       That's why she never worried about him when he went on 
     missions with his unit.
       ``They were so well trained and so precise in what they 
     did,'' she says. ``I know that's naive, but we grew up in 
     Iowa, our cups were always half full, not half empty. We both 
     knew the Army could be a dangerous job, but we never dwelled 
     on it.''
       But Oct. 6, the unthinkable happened. Matthew Rierson was 
     killed in a mortar attack in Somalia. His last conversation 
     with his wife occurred five days before he died. ``His unit 
     set up phone calls on the base and the kids went with me. We 
     talked about how things were going back home, how we missed 
     each other, that we loved each other.''
       During his 12-year Army career, Matthew Rierson received a 
     number of awards, including the Bronze Star, Defense 
     Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal and 
     Combat Infantryman Badge. The Purple Heart he was awarded 
     after his death rests in his widow's bedroom, alongside the 
     American flag, a unit memorial bronze eagle and all his other 
     ribbons and awards.
       ``I'm extremely proud of what he did,'' Patricia Rierson 
     says. ``The only frustration I feel is the way the political 
     focus changed so dramatically after the 3d and 4th of 
     October.
       ``They sent our soldiers over to do a job, they made a 
     commitment. But when they pulled out, they left a lot of 
     things unfinished. My only concern is that they really think 
     about how they are committing sons and fathers and husbands 
     when they make these decisions, and they should follow it 
     through.''

             These Memories Are of a Kid Doing Farm Chores


                        sfc randall d. shughart

       Lincoln, Neb-born SFC Randall D. Shughart was raised on a 
     modest dairy farm in Newville, Pa. And his mother says he did 
     his daily chores there with a zeal uncommon among most 
     youngsters.
       ``Every day he did it, without complaint,'' says his 
     mother, Lois Shughart, from her home in Blain, Pa. ``He and 
     his brothers had to get up early and work * * * milking cows, 
     working in the fields, plowing the land, mowing and baling 
     the hay * * *.''
       But Randall Shughart loved every minute of it. His passion 
     for farming was rivaled only by his interest in the Army. 
     ``He was always reading books about soldiers and important 
     Army generals,'' his mother says.
       At 17, Randall Shughart enlisted in the Army in 1975 under 
     the Delayed Entry Program while he was still a student at 
     Newville's Big Spring High School. But after three years of 
     active duty, he decided to get out, join the Reserves and try 
     his hand at running the farm with his father. But his mother 
     says that didn't work.
       ``We needed a bigger farm to justify two men running it, so 
     Randy went back in the service. But he would have come back 
     to it eventually. It was his life.''
       But Randall Shughart never got a chance to return to dairy 
     farming. He was killed Oct. 4 during his successful effort to 
     save the life of a downed pilot in Somalia, an action for 
     which he will be awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously. He 
     was 35, and had been married to Stephanie Shughart for less 
     than two years.
       ``I always encouraged him in his Army things,'' says Lois 
     Shughart. ``What happened in Somalia was something I knew 
     could happen, but he always assured me that he and his unit 
     were so well trained and so very careful, that it wasn't 
     likely.''
       She keeps her son's Purple Heart in a knick-knack cabinet 
     with some other things. Then there's the other awards he 
     received during his 14 years of active duty: the Defense 
     Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the 
     Bronze Star, two Army Achievement Medals. He also earned the 
     Combat Infantryman Badge and the Ranger and Special Forces 
     tab.
       But when she thinks about her second-to-the-oldest child, 
     Lois Shughart doesn't remember a well-trained soldier in 
     green. She remembers a little boy with brown hair, running 
     around on a farm with his brother and two sisters. A little 
     boy happy to milk cows and mow the hay. A little boy with his 
     nose buried in a book.
       Her voice breaks as she tries to sum up his life in a 
     couple of words.
       ``He liked animals * * *. He was always nice and friendly 
     to people. He was just a good boy.''

               He Said It Was Tough To Spot The Bad Guys


                        CPL. JAMES E. SMITH JR.

       Cpl. James E. Smith Jr., 21, could succeed at anything. 
     Anything he put his mind to, that is.
       His mother, Caroline Smith, says her son had an independent 
     streak. ``He had to make his own choices,'' Caroline Smith 
     says. ``Throughout high school, we would have wished that he 
     had paid more attention to his grades. Then, his senior year, 
     he made the dean's list. He said that as a senior, he was 
     entitled to be exempted from finals [for making the dean's 
     list]. That was what he wanted--to be exempt from finals.''
       James Smith Jr. was an athlete in high school--football and 
     lacrosse. He planned to go to college, like his parents 
     wished. But that independent streak showed again when he 
     enlisted and volunteered for the Rangers.
       James Smith Sr. told his son the risks he might face. ``I 
     know my husband spoke pretty graphically to Jamie about what 
     he was getting himself into,'' Caroline Smith says. ``But 
     this is what he wanted to do.''.
       His letters home from Somalia indicated things weren't 
     going smoothly. ``The way he put it in his letters was that 
     it was very, very tough to know who the bad guys were,'' 
     Caroline Smith says.
       That's why the Smiths are wary of the Clinton 
     administration. They feel President Clinton and his national 
     security team lost control of the Somalia mission. James 
     Smith Jr. was killed in the Oct. 3 firefight. He received the 
     Bronze Star Medal for valor.
       ``The Army is doing an exemplary job to make sure these 
     young men are prepared for any event,'' Caroline Smith says. 
     ``They're just being misused by an administration that is 
     deploying them irresponsibly.''
       That belief is a troublesome one for the Smiths, not only 
     because of their son's death, but because another son, Todd, 
     wants to enlist after high school.
       Todd Smith doesn't disagree with his parents' assessment of 
     Clinton. ``What he's wrestling with is that this is something 
     that he always wanted to do,'' Caroline Smith says. ``It's 
     not that he's following in his brother's footsteps--he has 
     his own agenda.''
       So do the Smiths. ``As a disabled Vietnam veteran,'' James 
     Smith Sr. told a May 12 Senate hearing on the Somalia 
     operation, ``I had the responsibility, the obligation to 
     ensure that my son's generation did not suffer the fate of 
     his father's generation.''

              ``I'll Always be Able to Return, Remember''

       Washington.--It has happened on or about the third of each 
     month since last fall.
       An honor guard of six Rangers, accompanied by a 
     noncommissioned officer, marches solemnly to a grave site in 
     Fort Benning, Ga's cemetery. They flank the mound, three on 
     each side. And at 1730, as the base flag is lowered for 
     retreat, they salute the fallen soldier. Sometimes the NCO 
     says a prayer or reads a scripture.
       Cpl. James Smith Jr. is buried there. Of the six Rangers 
     killed from the 3d Ranger Battalion in Somalia, Smith was the 
     only one buried at Fort Benning. Since that failed operation, 
     his comrades in the 3d Ranger Battalion at Fort Benning have 
     relied on the monthly tribute to help them remember ``how 
     serious our business is, how dangerous it is, and how special 
     being a Ranger is,'' said Lt. Col. Danny McKnight, battalion 
     commander.
       McKnight, 43, doesn't attend every monthly ceremony, but he 
     often makes his own pilgrimage to the site for a private 
     memorial. ``It just reminds me of how much our soldiers, our 
     Rangers, gave that day,'' he said. ``Of how they went above 
     and beyond what anybody expected to do.''
       During the Oct. 3 operation Task Force Ranger, in 
     Magadishu, Somalia, most of the Rangers from the 3d Battalion 
     were part of a convoy of Humvees and trucks led by McKnight. 
     Smith was one of the foot soldiers heading toward a 
     helicopter crash site when Somalia gunfire killed him.
       ``The unfortunate loss of six Rangers could have been much 
     greater except for the great sacrifices of people like Cpl. 
     Smith,'' said McKnight, who was shot in the arm that day.
       Two of the fallen Rangers are buried at Arlington National 
     Cemetery in Arlington, Va. The others are buried in their 
     hometowns. But Smith, a native of Long Valley, N.J., was 
     buried at Fort Benning because that's where he Rangered, and 
     that's what he would have wanted, his father, Vietnam veteran 
     James Smith Sr., told McKnight.
       ``That's always meant a lot to me.'' McKnight said. ``It's 
     a special place, someplace I'll always be able to return to, 
     to remember.''

                          ____________________