[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 47 (Tuesday, March 14, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E593]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        REMEMBERING MARK DOSTAL

                                 ______


                            HON. BILL BAKER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 14, 1995
  Mr. BAKER of California. Mr. Speaker, recently a tragedy befell my 
home area in the east bay region of San Francisco. Mark Christopher 
Dostal, a native of Moraga, CA, was a senior cadet at the U.S. Air 
Force Academy when he was killed in a training accident while flying a 
T-3 aircraft at the Academy February 23.
  Mark was the kind of young person to whom our country has always 
looked as a future leader. He was a fine young scholar and a multisport 
athlete, serving as co-captain of his Miramonte High School football 
team and also was a member of the track and field team. And, too, Mark, 
loved skiing and rock climbing.
  But it was in rugby, that toughest of land sports, that Mark 
especially excelled. He was a member of the High School All-American 
Rugby Team, on which he played for the United States in New Zealand. He 
was a starting player on the A-side men's rugby team at the Air Force 
Academy from his freshman year on.
  Mark's academic career was no less outstanding. A 4.0 student at 
Miramonte, he was a 4-year member of the California Scholastic 
Federation. He won a prestigious award for one of his engineering 
drawings, and at the Academy, where he was majoring in behavioral 
sciences, he made the dean's list three times and superintendent's list 
twice.
  Mark's promise as a leader was evident in the posts he held at the 
Academy. He was a projects non-commissioned officer and element leader, 
and was appointed squadron commander during survival training after his 
freshman year. He was in the Soar-for-All program, where he soloed in a 
motorless glider, and helped lead the assault course as an instructor 
for basic cadet training.
  Mark took life at full tilt. His mother, Shirley, has said that over 
the course of his athletic career, he broke all his fingers at various 
times. He was a young man who would not quit, and who relished in the 
simple joy of being alive. He loved being with his friends, and knew 
how to laugh as well as to study and compete.
  To his family and his many friends, I offer my deepest condolences. 
They have lost a son, a brother, and a friend. Our country has lost one 
of its most promising young leaders. Yet, in his memory, we gain 
enduring inspiration from a life characterized by a unique combination 
of excellence and joy. Mark's 20 years were too short, but the fullness 
of his living will remain.




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