[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 102 (Friday, July 28, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1611]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E1611]]
         TRIBUTE TO ARMY SERGEANT MARK VECCHIONE OF EASTHAM, MA

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 28, 2006

  Mr. DELAHUNT. Mr. Speaker, a community is gathering to remember a 
young man who died far away from his home of Eastham on Cape Cod, in a 
place made infamous through the fury of war. Today, he returns to the 
place of his youth, to be mourned and to rest forever where peace holds 
its gentle sway.
  Army Sergeant Mark Vecchione was the typical, all-American kid who 
had a fear of spiders, but confessed his greatest weakness was seeing a 
little kid upset. He went to Iraq, not as part of a conquering Army, 
but to help establish that fundamental human value that all people 
everywhere--especially children--should never have to live in fear.
  As the Bible tells us, ``Blessed is the peacemaker; for they shall be 
called the children of God. Blessed are those who mourn; for they shall 
be comforted.'' SGT Vecchione was a soldier determined to bring peace 
to a war-torn land. Now he is in a place to join with Him to bring some 
comfort to those who gather to mourn his passing.
  I ask that all of my colleagues in the House take a moment to read 
the following commentary that recently appeared in the Cape Cod Times 
about this young man.

                       [From the Cape Cod Times]

                   First Cape Soldier Killed in Iraq

                    (By Robin Lord and Jason Kolnos)

       Cynthia DesLauriers and her daughter, Lori Vecchione, were 
     sitting on their deck in the evening breeze Tuesday when a 
     government car pulled up to the house. At first, DesLauriers, 
     who is a front desk clerk at the Eastham Post Office, thought 
     it was someone from the U.S. Postal Service. But, when men in 
     military uniforms stepped out, DesLauriers knew her worst 
     fears had been realized.
       ``They didn't even have to say anything. I just said, `No, 
     no, no, it's not happening,' '' she said yesterday, a little 
     more than 12 hours after she learned her only son and 
     youngest child, Mark Vecchione, 25, had been killed in Iraq.
       The Army sergeant, who had written on his personal 
     myspace.com Web page that ``getting home alive'' was his No. 
     1 goal this year, died Tuesday somewhere in Iraq.
       He was killed when the tank he was riding in ran over an 
     ``improvised explosive device'' or IED. As the head gunner in 
     the tank, he may have been riding halfway out of the vehicle 
     when it was hit, according to what an Army official told his 
     mother, The Army official did not reveal the exact location 
     of his death or his body to DesLauriers, or any other details 
     surrounding his death, pending an investigation and 
     report, she said.
       Vecchione died exactly two weeks after he had returned to 
     Iraq from a short leave with his family in Eastham.
       He was on his second tour of duty in Iraq, which was due to 
     end in six months.
       Although Vecchione moved to Tucson, Ariz., when he was a 
     junior in high school to live with his now deceased father, 
     Guy Vecchione, he is the first person who was born and raised 
     on Cape Cod to die in the war that began more than three 
     years ago.
       ``If you were going to go to war, you'd want to go with 
     him,'' said Al Cestaro, a retired sergeant in the Army's 
     501st Airborne Division, who has known Vecchione since 
     kindergarten in Eastham.
       Cestaro called his friend ``selfless and kind.'' As an Army 
     sergeant, he said Vecchione had ``an undying dedication to 
     his soldiers.''
       Vecchione was honored to be serving his country, Cestaro 
     said.
       ``We all knew as soldiers the price of freedom is you have 
     to see your friends die, or you die. But he didn't want to 
     die any other way than knowing he was protecting his 
     family.''
       When Vecchione re-enlisted after his first tour of duty, 
     Cestaro said he asked him why he wanted to go back to the 
     dangers and the horrors of war. He said Vecchione told him he 
     didn't want to let his comrades down.
       There are about 132,000 U.S. troops serving in Iraq. As of 
     10 a.m. yesterday, 2,554 soldiers have been killed and about 
     19,000 injured.
       Another friend from childhood, Vicki Fulcher of South 
     Yarmouth, called the Army Vecchione's ``passion.'' Both 
     Cestaro and Fulcher partied with Vecchione when he was home 
     earlier this month, stopping at one of his favorite places, 
     the Land Ho in Orleans, and enjoying cookouts.
       To his sister, Lori, Vecchione was her best friend. He was 
     ``very brave, smart, with a heart of gold and nerves of 
     steel,'' she said. And he was also a hero to her five-year-
     old son, Sebastian.
       To his mother, he was ``just my little boy who was always 
     watching out for us.''
       With tears welling in her eyes frequently and her face 
     etched with the numbness and weariness that only sudden grief 
     can bring, DesLauriers said her son was ``very proud'' to be 
     serving in Iraq, but ``was afraid at times'' of the dangers.
       A glance at Vecchione's myspace.com Web page reveals a man 
     with a deep love for his family, especially his nephew 
     Sebastian. He called his late father, who died last year, his 
     hero.
       He listed spiders as his greatest fear, but posted several 
     pictures of himself holding a 5-foot machine gun in lraq.
       And he joked that the club he belonged to while attending 
     Sahuaro High School in Tucson was the ``Reserved Seat In the 
     Principal's Office Club.'' He regrets most not doing a better 
     job while in school. A Catholic man who wanted to be a pilot 
     when he grew up, he said his greatest weakness was ``seeing 
     little kids upset.''
       When Vecchione left the Cape to live with his father in 
     Tuscon, he befriended Travis Wilson and his sister Bambi 
     Anaya.
       ``He was the kind of person you could talk to about 
     anything,'' said Anaya, 27, reached at her Arizona home 
     yesterday. ``He was that spot of sunshine in all of our 
     lives.''
       Wilson, 26, an Army sergeant currently stationed in Fort 
     Knox, Ky., called Vecchione ``the greatest human being I have 
     ever met and I'm honored to have had my life touched by 
     him.''
       It was in July of 2001 when Vecchione, Wilson and another 
     friend all decided to join the Army. Wilson said in addition 
     to seeing it as a way to help his country, Vecchione saw the 
     military as an avenue for personal growth before someday 
     going to college.
       At the Eastham Post Office on Route 6 yesterday morning, 
     patrons were halted in their tracks at the door, where acting 
     Postmaster Donald Rogers had posted a notice of Vecchione's 
     death.
       ``It's a small community where everybody knows everybody,'' 
     he said.
       Recent photos of Vecchione in his uniform and with 
     Sebastian are tacked up on the wall at the desk, as well as 
     on the computer his mother uses. Customers often asked 
     DesLauriers how he was doing, said postal clerk Mark Godfrey.
       ``I got the impression she got a lot of comfort from 
     that,'' he said.
       In addition to his mother, sister and nephew, Vecchione is 
     survived by an uncle, Donald Vecchione of East Orleans; an 
     aunt and uncle, Brenda and Jeff Vecchione of Eastham; and a 
     cousin. Tye Vecchione of Chatham, Services will be held at a 
     later date.

                          ____________________