[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 31 (Thursday, March 11, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E351]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO ARMY PVT. BRYAN NICHOLAS SPRY

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                          HON. JOSE E. SERRANO

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 11, 2004

  Mr. SERRANO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Army Pvt. 
Bryan Nicholas Spry, a national hero who paid the ultimate price for 
his country on February 14 in Baghdad, Iraq. This brave, 19-year-old 
soldier from Maryland's Eastern Shore, fresh out of basic training, had 
been in Iraq just over a month when he died.
  Bryan was born in Wilmington, Delaware, and raised in Chestertown, 
Maryland, in Kent County on the Eastern Shore. I had the privilege of 
knowing him personally and found him to be a friendly, gregarious young 
man who loved the outdoors, baseball and the idea of being a soldier.
  Mr. Speaker, on the night of February 13, Bryan attempted to drive 
his Humvee across a bridge which collapsed, dumping the vehicle into 
the water said Bryan's mother, Mrs. Beverly Couch Fabri. Three of the 
Humvee's passengers got out and swam to safety. But Bryan was 
unconscious when they pulled him out of the murky water. His lungs were 
filled with water. He died the next day, Valentine's Day, in a field 
hospital in Baghdad.
  As a boy growing up on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, he 
idolized his older brother, Michael, a professional baseball player. 
Michael plays right field for the River City Rascals, a St. Louis area 
club that competes in the independent Frontier League. The two boys and 
their father often went deer hunting together. But instead of shooting 
the animals with a gun, Bryan preferred to shoot them with his camera. 
On one of those hunting excursions, when his brother was about to pull 
the trigger on his target, he saved the deer's life by scaring it off, 
his mother recalled. ``After that, his brother didn't take him along 
[on hunts] for a very long time,'' Fabri said.
  Mr. Speaker, I am told that both of Bryan's grandfathers fought in 
World War II, and growing up he loved to run in the woods, playing army 
with his brother and friends. As a child he decorated his bedroom with 
GI Joe action figures, said one his boyhood friends. Bryan attended 
Kent County High School where he was an outfielder on the baseball 
team. Twenty-one days after he graduated from high school, he made good 
on his dream to become a soldier, shipping off to basic training at 
Fort Benning, Georgia. After successfully concluding his training, he 
was detached to the 82nd Airborne Division's Company D, 1st Battalion, 
504th Infantry, based at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina.
  On Friday, February 20, visitation was held for Bryan at the Fellows, 
Helfenbein and Newnam Funeral Home in his hometown of Chestertown. A 
memorial was also held that night at Mear's Great Oak Landing, a 
waterfront complex in Chestertown, with money raised from a silent 
auction and raffle to go into a fund in his name that will help 
military families. How fitting!
  Funeral services were held at 2 p.m. on Saturday in the auditorium at 
Kent County High School in Worton. Bryan was laid to rest with full 
military honors at St. James United Methodist Church Cemetery, a final 
tribute to a paratrooper who, colleagues said, understood the 
meaning of duty and sacrifice. Major Marvin Luckie, deputy division 
chaplain for the 82nd Airborne read from the 23rd Psalm and from the 
lyrics to ``Taps.'' As the chaplain finished reading the psalm and a 
21-gun salute broke the quiet, an honor guard slowly folded the flag 
and presented it to his weeping mother.

  ``In life, he honored the flag,'' Luckie said. ``In death, the flag 
will honor him.''
  On Wednesday, February 25 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne 
Division held a memorial service in Iraq to remember him.
  Mr. Speaker, the number of fallen heroes emerging from the war in 
Iraq, unfortunately, continues to grow. Our brave men and women who 
risk their lives daily are national treasures. I ask my colleagues to 
join me today in commemorating one of these treasured heroes; Army Pvt. 
Bryan Nicholas Spry.

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