[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 91 (Wednesday, June 19, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H6627-H6628]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     DONALD DUGAN'S WIDOW'S LETTER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to yield some time to Mr. Dornan 
of California because he was reading a letter of a widow of a great 
American and he was not through with it.
  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, I just found another paragraph in Miriam 
Dugan's letter, the widow of Donald Dugan, the handsome 35-year-old, 
17-year Army sergeant who died in the presence of the children that he 
was trying to save from a land mine.
  I just wanted to read the opening of her letter and the whole letter 
will appear in the Record for anybody interested who watches our 
proceedings on C-SPAN.

       I am writing this letter on behalf of my husband, 
     Specialist First Class Donald H. Dugan, and my family. My 
     husband was killed disarming an explosive device while 
     deployed in Bosnia. I would like to take this opportunity to 
     let everyone know he was not the type of person that the 
     media has represented him to be. He was portrayed as careless 
     for trying to disarm the explosive when specific guidance had 
     been issued to leave explosives alone. He was not careless.

  Mr. KINGSTON. I hate to interrupt this great letter but are you 
saying to me that a war hero, right after Memorial Day, was depicted by 
the U.S. Army for being careless and irresponsible because he was 
trying to save children's lives?
  Mr. DORNAN. It started the very week Don Dugan died, when I went to a 
big military dinner and a four-star general says to me, without knowing 
the facts and did not even know his name, Well, I hear he was way out 
in front of his troops and he was not doing what was right.
  I looked at this four-star and I said, we are not developing a story 
here so that Clinton bears no blame for sending these people to Bosnia. 
I said, you

[[Page H6628]]

better be careful here, general. To have a widow, through the Army 
Times, have to beg people, Mother of his four children, not to portray 
him in a bad light. She said, ``He was not careless. He was caring. He 
was a loving and devoted husband, father and military leader. My 
husband made the ultimate sacrifice. He gave his life to save others.''
  She talks about the cards and letters she had received from his 
friends who I told you called him McGyver. Since when does a widow have 
to beg, do not think ill of my husband who had told his men the day 
before, the week before and that morning, we are here to save these 
children in Bosnia from blowing themselves to bits by these mines?

  Mr. KINGSTON. This was a woman whose husband went because of the 
Commander in Chief sending them into harm's way.
  Mr. DORNAN. His was one of the first vehicles to cross the Sava 
River. Get this peculiar thing, of being the first man, he was in A 
company, A troop of the first company of the first squadron of the 
first battalion of the first brigade of the First Armored division. He 
was one of the first to cross the bridge.
  The media could highlight with a little brightened circle and say, 
here is Donald Dugan, one of the first men into Bosnia. He gives his 
life, and he has probably saved other lives because now everybody is 
backing off the explosives. There will be kids losing legs and arms and 
their lives with these land mines that all sides planted there.
  To have the widow beg, through the Army Times, Please do not think 
ill of my husband, he was not careless, he was caring, is symbolic. 
That is why I say, all of our people in Bosnia on the ground are a form 
of hostage, relieving European men and women from being there, outside 
of the NATO mandate that they should take care of this on the ground.
  Mr. KINGSTON. The gentleman from Arizona has joined us. I yield to 
Mr. Hayworth.
  Mr. HAYWORTH. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Georgia. As 
always, I am heartened and, yes, frankly troubled by the statements of 
our good friend from California. For once again, our friend from 
California points up a disturbing pattern of denial on the part of this 
administration.

                             {time}   2345

  As we said on the evening when we debated the whole notion of sending 
our troops there, this is not for fighting men and women to pull the 
zebra stripes of the referee in an athletic contest over their 
camouflage. Our fighting men and women are exactly that. They are not 
referees, nor are they social workers.
  And far more disturbing, my colleagues, in addition to the 
disinformation, the denial, the disavowal of this man's sacrifice, now 
word comes that the President of the United States would like to extend 
this mission in Bosnia past the deadline of 1 year, perhaps to silence 
critics that said this could have been a political move, or perhaps 
fitting into a pattern of inconsistency that has beset the foreign 
policy of this administration, a foreign policy typified by the 
irrationality----
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Barton of Texas). The time of the 
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston] has expired.

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