[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 23 (Thursday, February 27, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1697-S1698]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          OUR GIFT OF FREEDOM

  Mr. ENZI. When we woke up this morning, I wonder how many of us 
paused to reflect on the great gift we have been given--the gift of our 
freedom. It is a special gift, but so many of us take it for granted, 
even though we paid for it at quite a heavy price. As we drove to work, 
how many of us thought about the sacrifices that were made over the 
years by our Nation's veterans to preserve and protect those freedoms?
  Six years ago, President Bush was in the White House and he had a 
difficult task on his hands. The world was in crisis. The United 
Nations was meeting night and day to try to stop the spread of the 
threat of Saddam Hussein. He had invaded Kuwait and brought the people 
of that nation to their knees. Something had to be done.

  When the cry for help went out from Kuwait, we sent our best to 
answer the call. Many brave men and women went to a foreign land to 
stop the advance of that madman in the deserts of Kuwait and Iraq.
  In the days that followed, we picked up a whole new vocabulary. We 
spoke of Scuds, Patriot missiles, chemical weapons, gas masks, Riyadh, 
and so much more.
  It was a war we witnessed like no other battle in our history. We 
charted our troops' progress with the reports we saw on the news every 
night. We were a part of it all. The press took us right along with our 
soldiers as the fighting progressed. Everything came to us live as the 
media brought the conflict right into our living rooms.
  It was almost like watching a movie. It seemed so distant and 
dangerous. Yet, somehow, because of our advanced technology, we thought 
our young men

[[Page S1698]]

and women would be safe and that they would all make it home. Would 
that it were so.
  When it was over, and the battle had been won, we all felt a great 
wave of relief that our casualties had been light. But light 
casualties, don't feel so light when they include our families, our 
friends, and our loved ones.
  One hundred and forty-six young people did not come back. I say this 
in their memory as I mention one young man who didn't come home from 
that battle came from Gillette, WY. Manuel Davila was a young father, a 
nice guy who always had a smile and a kind word for everyone he met. He 
was the kind of person you'd like to have for a friend. That is why he 
had so many friends.
  I watched Manuel grow up. He was a remarkable young man. He came from 
the town I call home. You didn't get to meet him, so I should use the 
words of Ron Franscell, the editor of the Gillette News Record, who 
wrote so eloquently 6 years ago as Manuel's body was brought home for 
burial: ``I never knew Manuel, but he was from my town, he was one of 
us, and he had dreams. In that way, I knew him very well. You know him, 
too.''
  Yes, Ron, we all did know him, too.
  Manuel saw a need, and when he was asked to go, he didn't hesitate. 
He was doing his job and it was a job he loved and felt proud to have 
been called to do. That's what it was to him. He felt good to be a part 
of this special mission for he understood how much it meant to the 
defenseless people of Kuwait who needed him so very badly.
  In Wyoming, we like to think of our State as holy ground that was 
blessed by God. It is a land of open spaces, beautiful mountains that 
seem to stretch up to God's heaven, green forests, national parks, 
clean, clear, cool air and wide open spaces.
  Manuel traded all of that for a far different world.
  He traded his clear blue skies for a desert sky that was pitch black 
with the fumes and smoke of oil fields set on fire by Iraqi troops. He 
traded his beautiful mountain paradise for an isolated desert 
wasteland. He traded the clean, crisp air of Wyoming for the use of a 
gas mask and the threat of Saddam's chemical weapons. He traded the 
safety and security of his homeland for the uncertainty and danger of a 
battlefield. He traded it all to go overseas and fight for freedom.
  When it was all over, in spite of all the precautions we had taken to 
protect our troops, this brave young man didn't make it home. A wife 
had lost her husband, and a family had lost a son. A little girl had 
lost her father.
  Six years ago we brought him back home to Wyoming. The loss of Manuel 
in the desert reinforced the truth of an adage made famous by an old 
television show written about a different war. In one scene a doctor 
says that there are two rules of war. The first rule is that young men 
and women die. The second rule is there is nothing that can be done to 
change rule 1. It is the awful truth of battle.
  Today, although we are far removed from that battlefield, we must 
never forget the sacrifices that were made by Manuel and by so many 
more who gave their lives for great causes like the one that claimed 
young Manuel's life. We must continue to honor their memory and 
commemorate their brave and courageous actions that were done in our 
name. Truly, far too many have made the ultimate sacrifice that we 
might be free.
  There is no greater way we can honor Manuel's memory and that of our 
other great war heroes than to rededicate ourselves every day of our 
lives to the cause of peace. I find great inspiration for that cause 
and the importance of peace when I reflect on the beautiful words of 
the Book of Isaiah in the Bible: ``They shall beat their swords into 
plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift 
up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.''
  Yes, Manuel was one of our great heroes of Wyoming and of these 
United States. He was a good kid, a hometown boy who had plans for his 
future. That future was cruelly taken from him on foreign soil by a 
madman. Now, the torch Manuel carried so bravely in battle is passed to 
us to light the path to peace in our lives. We had best carry it high 
and proudly as we commit our every effort to ensuring that we will 
never again ask our young men and women to make the ultimate sacrifice, 
as we work together to avoid the horrors of war. If we are successful, 
we will truly live in a world of peace, where nation shall not lift up 
sword against nation. That is the best way for us to care for those who 
have borne the battle, by ensuring that it never happens again.

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