[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 64 (Monday, May 22, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S4848]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HORNORING OUR ARMED FORCES


      Private First Class John Lukac and Corporal William Salazar

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I just finished a meeting in my office. It 
was emotional, to say the least. Two mothers--both mothers of Marine 
Corps men--came to my office to tell me about their boys who were 
killed in Iraq. I asked each of them to tell me about their sons.
  Helena Lukac, of Hungarian ancestry, a beautiful woman, spoke with an 
accent telling me about her boy. He had better than a 4-point grade 
average at Durango High School. He loved math and science. He wanted to 
be an FBI agent or a CIA operative.
  He told his mom: I am not sure I can do that because we came from a 
Communist country. I am not sure they would let me do that.
  He joined the Marine Corps when he was 18, and at 19 years old he was 
killed.
  Gloria Salazar's son was 23 when he was killed. He wanted to be in 
the Marine Corps from the time he was little, but at the first attempt 
he couldn't pass the physical. But he worked on his deficiencies and 
came back and joined the Marine Corps. She was very proud of him. She 
showed me a picture of his arrival in Iraq with his camera that he used 
which was part of his job in Iraq.
  The mothers told the same story. They knew when their sons had been 
killed.
  Ms. Salazar was shopping in a mall, and that afternoon her son's 
picture kept falling out of her purse. She was so troubled she went 
home, and during the day she went to sleep, which was unusual. The time 
was assessed thereafter. She slept from the time he was injured until 
the time he died. The same thing happened to Helena Lukac. She was at 
work. She described her feeling as ``a nut with nothing inside it.'' 
She felt empty.

  I expressed to them my sorrow and sympathy and the appreciation of a 
grateful nation for these two young men having given their lives. It 
was a very emotional experience to hear the mothers talk about PFC John 
Lukac killed in Anbar Province and CPL William Salazar in Karabilah, 
Iraq.

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