[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 66 (Wednesday, May 24, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5110-S5111]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING OUR ARMED FORCES


                          Corporal Cory Palmer

                      Marine Corporal Sean Barney

                           Stephen Snowberger

  Mr. CARPER. I would like to change gears, if I could. I would like to 
talk about a place in southern Delaware, a place called Seaford. Most 
people in this Chamber--my guess is most people around the world--have 
never heard about Seaford, DE, but almost everybody in this country and 
around the world has heard about a product called nylon. The first 
nylon plant in the world was built in Seaford, DE, by the DuPont 
Company, I think roughly 60 years or so ago. It is a plant that is 
still in operation, though run by a different firm today. There are 
still close to 1,000 people who work there. So Seaford is really known 
in our State, and to the extent they are known around the country, as 
the home of the first nylon plant ever built in the world.
  Seaford is a small town. I don't know exactly how many people live 
there now, but it is less than 10,000 people--maybe 5,000 or so. There 
is a lot of pride there, about their heritage with DuPont and a number 
of other reasons as well. It is in the southwestern part of our State, 
Sussex County. A number of people in Seaford have gone on to serve in 
the Armed Forces of our country. This month, two of our young Seaford 
natives who had gone on to serve in Iraq have given their lives, have 
lost their lives. A young man named Cory Palmer, earlier in his life, 
maybe 10 years ago, came up to the Governor's house. I was hosting the 
Governors Fall Festival. We kicked off the Governors Fall Festival 
every year with a 5-kilometer race. I remember Cory and other members 
of his family running in that race with the rest of us.
  Earlier this month, Cory was in a humvee in Fallujah, with his 
teammates and the humvee exploded. It hit an IED, a big one, and Cory 
and his team, I think now maybe all six of them, at least five, have 
lost their lives.
  I had the privilege of visiting with Cory Palmer's parents about 12 
days ago. As I sat there in the living room of that home with Cory's 
mom and dad, with his grandparents, siblings, I talked about another 
young man, a fellow who came to my attention--gosh, 6 years ago.
  I got a phone call from Bill Bradley, Senator Bill Bradley, who was 
running for President. Bill Bradley called me to talk about a couple of 
guys who had worked in his Presidential campaign. He said: I am pulling 
out of the Presidential campaign. I have several people in my 
Presidential campaign whom you ought to talk to as you consider your 
run for the Senate.
  One of the names he shared with me that day was that of Sean Barney. 
Sean Barney came to work for us and ended up being my research director 
in our campaign for 2001. One of the smartest people I have ever met, 
he was also one of the hardest working people I have ever met. Sean 
worked as a research director in our campaign. In the campaign, he came 
early, he worked late. He didn't just do it once in a while, he did it 
every day and every night. I think one of the reasons we were 
successful in that campaign was because of his hard work and sort of 
never-say-die attitude.
  I got elected, came to the Senate, and I asked Sean if he would join 
us on my Senate staff and he said that he would be pleased to do that. 
He came to work in January of 2001, one of the first people we hired. 
He came on board as a senior legislative aide.
  I will not soon forget the day he came into my office and said to me, 
after 9/11, that he felt the need to do something more to serve our 
country. He knew that I had served in the Navy. He said he had always 
respected the service that I had to my country during the Vietnam war 
and later on in the Cold War. He said he felt the need to do that kind 
of thing as well.
  Sean was then in his mid- to late 20s. I said: Sean, you served your 
country already. You do a great job of serving Delaware, you serve your 
country, you do it right here in the Senate, and we are lucky that you 
do. Why don't you just stay here with us and continue the service you 
perform and perform so well?
  Just like in the campaign where he came early, worked late, in the 
Senate he was just the same. He had a whole range of issues, from tax 
policy, budget policy, Social Security, Medicare--he didn't take the 
easy issues, he took the tough issues. He came early, worked late. He 
had a great sense of humor,

[[Page S5111]]

was a great person to boost the morale of the office, just a terrific 
team player, a guy we felt lucky to have on our team.
  As it turned out, on the Friday that I was sitting in the living room 
there in Seaford, DE, talking with Cory Palmer's parents about the loss 
of his life shortly after he left Fallujah in a Medevac, I told them 
about Sean Barney who had gone in the Marine Corps. Sean Barney decided 
he was going to be a marine. Despite my encouragement to the contrary, 
to stay with us and serve here in the Senate, he elected to go on to 
active duty. Here is a guy, a college graduate. He could have gone to 
Quantico, gone through OCS. He didn't. He decided he was going to 
enlist and not take the easier route--not that there is an easy route 
in the Marine Corps, but he said he wanted to go to Paris Island basic 
training. He finished there with distinction, headed on to finish, 
after that, his advanced training. After having spent a little less 
than a year on active duty, he came back to Washington--with shorter 
hair but with a good spirit--and rejoined my staff. He picked up on the 
issues he worked on before, and he worked just as hard, came early, 
worked late, good humor, a great member of our team.
  Late last year, he got word that he was going to be activated. I had 
really had a premonition that this was happening. When he had gone 
through his basic training and finished that and his unit was 
overseas--units were based up in New Jersey, the Marine unit--they were 
overseas, but he was not sent there to join them. They came back, and 
he continued to train with them in the United States. He had not been 
activated himself. He learned he was going to be activated late last 
year and be on active duty, I think this year.
  He went through training here in this country and a month or two ago 
headed over to Iraq. He went to Fallujah. As I was sitting again in 
Seaford, with the Palmer family, trying to provide some comfort to 
them, about 12 days ago, I told them about Sean Barney.
  Little did I know that just hours before I went to their home, Sean 
Barney was shot. He was shot in Fallujah, on the streets of Fallujah. 
He was shot by a sniper, and the bullet struck him in the neck, just 
missed his Adam's apple. It severed the carotid artery, apparently 
nipped the jugular vein, barely missed his spine. Sean ran about half a 
block, got behind some building or debris, and by a miracle, apparently 
a humvee that was not too far away was called in by one of Sean's 
buddies. I think it had a corpsman, Navy corpsman on board, maybe even 
a doc. They got to Sean and Sean was still conscious. The last thing he 
remembered was hearing the corpsman say: Let's get the tourniquet out 
and use it. Sean was thinking, with a wound in the neck, where are they 
going to put the tourniquet? That is Sean, a good sense of humor, maybe 
in this case gallows humor.
  Within 12 minutes, they had Sean in the humvee and into the hospital 
in Fallujah. They applied first aid en route, got him to Fallujah. 
There was a doctor there, if I can find his name here, a fellow whose 
name is Captain Donovan. Captain Donovan, who just happened to be 
starting a 30-day rotation at Camp Fallujah Hospital, was able to stop 
the bleeding and put the carotid artery back together again. The fact 
that Sean is alive today--and he is alive today, he is in Bethesda 
tonight--is a miracle.
  I know a lot of us prayed earnestly for Sean, for his life. He has 
been spared and returned to be here with his wife Daisy and his 
parents. He is going to be checking out of Bethesda later this week, we 
hope, and go on to Philadelphia where his wife is going through a 
residency in her medical training. She becomes a doctor, too.
  That is a happy ending. While he has some problems with his shoulder 
in terms of ability to use that shoulder now, he is going to get great 
care and hopefully rehab and maybe someday will be able to regain his 
full capacity.
  There is another young man from Seaford, though, subsequent to the 
time I visited with the Palmers, who we learned had been shot and 
killed in Ramadi.
  Earlier today, a young man, Rick James, 20 years old, also a marine, 
was buried in Seaford. And 12 days ago, Cpl Cory Palmer was buried at 
Arlington National Cemetery.
  Last night, I was back at Seaford visiting the family of Marine Cpl 
Rick James, trying to comfort them in the funeral home as they got 
ready to say goodbye to their son, their grandson, their brother, their 
cousin, and their friend.
  It has been a tough month in Delaware. We are a little State. We have 
had a number of people--maybe a dozen or so--who have lost their lives 
prior to this month in Iraq and Afghanistan. We lost three last month, 
which is tough for a little place.
  There is another young man whose family doesn't live in Delaware but 
he grew up in our State, Steven Snowberger, who went to William Penn 
High School. I was at his high school in New Castle, DE, last week. At 
the age of 16, he moved on to complete his education elsewhere and to 
join the Army. He died at the age of 18, about a week ago. We just said 
goodbye to Steven this past week.
  Those are three causes for great sorrow in our State, the loss of 
three young men, the oldest being 22 years of age.
  I must say that I am encouraged to talk to the families and see how 
proud they are of their young men, their sons, their grandsons, their 
brothers, their cousins, their friends.
  I have never seen a town that small, Seaford--or, frankly, a larger 
town--sort of welling up, really with pride, as they have these last 
couple of weeks, supporting those who have lost their lives and their 
families as well. It was extraordinary.
  One of our colleagues, John McCain, was invited to go to Delaware 
last weekend by my colleague, Mike Castle, to do a campaign event over 
on the coast. Senator McCain was good enough, at the urging of 
Congressman Castle, to swing through Seaford, DE, and stop to make an 
appearance there and say wonderful, supportive words about our young 
men--heroes. All of us in Delaware are grateful to him for doing that.
  While we mourn the loss of our marines and our Army PFC, we are just 
grateful that later this week another marine part of our family in the 
Senate, Sean Barney, is alive. I think he is going to be OK. I do not 
know that he will ever come back and work with us in the Senate family. 
He has been accepted to law school at Stanford, and my guess is he will 
probably--when he recovers enough and is ready to go onto the next part 
of his life and separate from the Marines--head for points west and 
pick up his life and his wife.
  To those in Seaford, and the Snowberger family down in North Carolina 
today who lost their son, Steven, our hearts go out to you. To the 
extent we can be helpful, you know we are there for you, like the whole 
State is.
  To our friend, Sean, we are just glad that miracles still happen and 
that one of them involved you.
  I yield the floor.

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