[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 90 (Thursday, June 30, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1405]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  TRIBUTE TO LANCE CORPORAL RYAN S. McCABE, UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MARTIN T. MEEHAN

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 29, 2005

  Mr. MEEHAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Lance Corporal Ryan S. 
McCabe of the United States Marine Corps for his extraordinary courage 
and heroism while serving our nation in Afghanistan. On March, 10, 
2005, Lance Corporal McCabe was presented with the Navy and Marine 
Corps Achievement Medal.
  Lance Corporal McCabe put himself at grave personal risk to protect 
the lives of the Marines in his unit. He used a bayonet to navigate his 
unit through a minefield in Afghanistan. Due to his bravery, Lance 
Corporal McCabe's patrol leader--who had been wounded by a detonated 
landmine--received the urgent medical care he needed to survive and 
recover.
  Lance Corporal McCabe has brought great pride to his parents, Stephen 
and Kathleen, and his hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts. I would like 
to congratulate Lance Corporal McCabe, and enter into the record a news 
article titled `` `V' for valor'' by reporter Robert Mills which ran in 
the May 30, 2005 edition of The Lowell Sun.
  His patrol leader had already been wounded by a landmine explosion 
when Lance Cpl. Ryan McCabe, of Lowell, was handed a bayonet and told 
by his sergeant to start digging his way through the minefield.
  McCabe, 22, took his orders without hesitation.
  Just minutes before, McCabe and the rest of the six-man patrol he was 
part of on that mid-August day had started up a hill where they saw a 
bunker. The patrol leader took the lead, walking up a trail even though 
the troops saw landmines on the hillside.
  Nevertheless, the patrol leader soon detonated an anti-personnel 
mine, which blew off part of his leg.
  The rest of the patrol retreated from the immediate area to avoid 
setting off any other mines, and began to organize a rescue mission.
  That's when McCabe received his orders.
  McCabe, who comes from a long line of veterans and Lowell 
firefighters, got on his hands and knees, and began probing through the 
minefield, plunging the bayonet into the dirt, searching for mines.
  ``You feel through the dirt with the bayonet at an angle so if you 
find a mine you hit it on the side, which won't set it off,'' he said.
  The anti-personnel mines are triggered when they are stepped on, so 
only direct pressure on top of the mines will cause an explosion.
  McCabe was too excited at the time to remember about how far he had 
to crawl through the minefield, but he eventually got to the lieutenant 
and secured the area around him which allowed the rest of the patrol, 
and the medic that was traveling with it, to rescue and treat the 
group's leader.
  In recognition of his efforts, McCabe was awarded the Navy and Marine 
Corps Achievement Medal, with a combat V--for valor--earlier this 
month.
  Despite his heroism in Afghanistan, which he returned from in 
December, McCabe and his unit, Lima Company of the Third Battalion 
Sixth Marines, will now ship out for duty in Iraq starting in August or 
September.
  He will leave for urban and desert warfare training in California 
next week, before spending an estimated six to nine months in Iraq.
  He said having another deployment so soon is ``stressful,'' but 
nothing he can't handle.
  ``It's stressful, but once you get over there it's not too bad'' he 
said. ``The first few months are depressing, but you get used to it 
real quick. ``
  McCabe, who lived in Lowell all his life before joining the Marine 
Corps, ran cross-country and track while he was a student at Lowell 
High School.
  When his duty with the Marine Corps is finished in about two years, 
he hopes to return to Lowell to become a firefighter, just as his 
father, two uncles and grandfather were before him.
  McCabe's father, Steve McCabe, of Lowell, is a lieutenant with the 
Lowell Fire Department's Ladder 4. McCabe's uncle, Patrick McCabe, is 
one of the department's eight deputy chiefs. His uncle, Bob McCabe, is 
also a Lowell firefighter, as was his grandfather, Patrick McCabe, who 
was a deputy chief when he retired from the department in 1984.
  He followed in his father's footsteps when he joined the Marines in 
2001. His father had served from 1974 to 1976, just missing being sent 
to Vietnam.
  Speaking from his Lowell home last week, Steve McCabe said he is 
proud of his son, though he naturally worries about him being in such 
dangerous situations.
  ``Like any parent that has a son or daughter serving I'm extremely 
proud, but at the same time I have mixed emotions because like any 
parent I worry,'' Steve McCabe said. ``I'm nervous about him going to 
Iraq. ``
  Steve McCabe said that just as he did when his son was in 
Afghanistan, he will be following closely any reports he can find while 
his son is in Iraq.
  Though his rescue mission in Afghanistan was perilous, McCabe said he 
didn't realize what he had done until after the lieutenant was saved.
  ``At the time, the adrenaline was going so much I just wasn't 
thinking of what was going on,'' he said from Fort Lejeune, in North 
Carolina, last week. ``It happened so quickly I didn't have time to get 
nervous.''
  ``Afterward, I realized `wow, what did I just do?' '' McCabe said.
  Mr. Speaker, we're blessed to have brave men and women like Lance 
Corporal Class Ryan S. McCabe serving our nation. We should never 
forget the risks they take to preserve our liberty.

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