[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 132 (Wednesday, September 24, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S11905]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING OUR ARMED FORCES

 Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, one of the most solemn duties 
that any Senator has is the memorializing of a constituent who has 
fallen in the line of duty in a far-away land. This is the fifth time I 
stand to do so, and on each occasion I am reminded of the remarkable 
character and quality of this generation of Americans; I would hope 
that their supreme sacrifice is noticed and remembered by their fellow 
citizens. But all too often the din of daily life in the 21st century 
threatens to drown out the news of the steady stream of allied 
casualties in Iraq. It is our duty to make sure that the rolls of the 
dead and wounded are read aloud: read, heard, and honored.
  Therefore, Mr. President, I wish today to fulfill a sacred 
obligation, and to honor United States Army Sergeant David Travis 
Friedrich, of the 325th Military Intelligence Battalion out of 
Waterbury, CT.
  Sergeant Friedrich was killed when mortar fire struck the base he was 
stationed at near the Abu Ghraid prison to the west of Baghdad. He died 
a true soldier; he died at his post.
  Sergeant Friedrich was raised in upstate New York, he attended 
Brockport State University, and he was accepted into the forensics 
studies program at the University of New Haven in the Spring 2000. But 
while the Sergeant was a New Yorker by birth, his studies and work in 
Connecticut and his role in a Connecticut Battalion, the 325th to be 
precise, makes him an honorary son of our State.
  It is a sad thing indeed for parents to bury their child, and I 
imagine that few words of solace spoken in this Chamber by the 
representatives of New York and Connecticut will penetrate the shroud 
of grief that must surround the Sergeant's family. With that in mind, 
however, I say this: know that as you grieve, a grateful Nation grieves 
with you. You are not alone in this time of sorrow, and your son's 
sacrifice will never be forgotten.

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