[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 75 (Tuesday, May 20, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6701-S6702]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING MARINE MATTHEW R. SMITH

  Mr. BAYH. Mr. President, I rise today with great sadness and 
tremendous gratitude to honor the life of a fellow Hoosier, soldier, 
family man and friend, Matthew R. Smith, who died serving our country 
in Kuwait on May 10, 2003.
  As those who knew Matthew can attest, his strong commitment to his 
State and country was reflected in his successful and distinguished 
career. He was the younger of two children and attended Indiana 
University. He stood about 5 feet 8 inches and weighed 140 pounds, but 
never let his small stature keep him from big accomplishments.
  In the Marine Reserve, Matthew served as a radio operator and was 
deployed to Kuwait in February. He traveled all the way to Baghdad 
during the war and had since been working on essential supply convoys. 
As a reservist with the 4th Force Service support group based in Peru, 
Matthew met an untimely death while driving in a military convoy. Chief 
Warrant Officer Suzanne Handshoe, who was his commanding officer in a 
training trip last summer to the Mojave Desert, remembered Matthew as 
an overachiever saying that he was ``a small guy, but was an extremely 
hard-working, can-do Marine.'' The day his son passed away, his father, 
David Smith received the first letter from his son since his 
deployment. In it, Matthew told his dad how proud he was to be overseas 
fighting for his country's freedom.
  President Abraham Lincoln wrote in a letter to the mother of a fallen 
Union soldier: ``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 alter of freedom.'' These words 
ring as true today as they did 140 years ago, as we mourn the loss of 
Matthew R. Smith and honor the sacrifice he made for America and for 
all humanity.
  It is my sad duty to enter the name of Matthew R. Smith in the 
official record of the Senate for his service to this country and for 
his profound commitment to freedom, democracy, and peace. When I think 
about this just cause in which we are engaged, and the unfortunate pain 
that comes with the loss of our heroes, I hope that Matthew's family 
can find comfort in the word of the prophet Isaiah who said, ``He will 
swallow up death in victory; and the lord God will wipe away tears from 
all faces.
  May God grant strength and peace to those who mourn, and may God 
bless the United States of America.

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