[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 116 (Thursday, July 19, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1562]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HONORING CAPTAIN RYAN KELLY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. THOMAS G. TANCREDO

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 18, 2007

  Mr. TANCREDO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Captain Ryan 
Kelly, an exceptional everyday hero from my district in Denver, 
Colorado. Ryan Kelly is one of many voices that paint a clear picture 
for America of the war our nation is waging. A company commander and an 
Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot, Kelly spent a year fighting in 
Iraq.
  Ryan Kelly participated in a national project by the National 
Endowment for the Arts called Operation Homecoming. This project sought 
to bring a real time perspective of what our soldiers are experiencing 
and allowing America to see through the lens of not only the soldiers 
fighting this war, but also the family members they leave behind.
  While serving our nation at war, Ryan Kelly wrote numerous letters 
home to his wife Judy and his mother Lynn. Two of his letters, as well 
as short stories, eyewitness accounts, poems and even lyrics written by 
other soldiers and their family members, appear in ``Operation 
Homecoming,'' and his writing is also included in a new documentary, 
``Muse of Fire,'' with Ray Bradbury and Kevin Costner.
  The messages contained within these words by the everyday heroes of 
America who are fighting this war need to be heard. The message of the 
sacrifice that our soldiers are making can be best summed up by this 
paragraph written by Ryan Kelly to his mother while he was serving in 
Iraq:

       If it weren't for the Army uniforms and the constant noise 
     of helicopters taking off and landing, and the Russian 747-
     like jets screaming overhead every hour of the day, and the 
     F-16s screeching around looking for something to kill, and 
     the rockets exploding and the controlled blasts shaking the 
     windows and the ``thump, thump, thump'' sound of the Apache 
     gun ships shooting their 30 mm guns in the middle of the 
     night, and the heat and the cold, and the hero missions and 
     the body bags and the stress, and the soldiers fraught with 
     personal problems--child custody battles fought from 3,000 
     miles away, surgeries on ovaries, hearts, breasts, brains, 
     cancers, transplants and the scorpions and the spiders who 
     hide under the toilet seats, and the freakish bee-sized flies 
     humming around like miniature blimps, and the worst: the 
     constant pang of home, the longing for family, the knowledge 
     that life is rolling past you like an unstoppable freight 
     train, an inevitable force, reinforcing the desire for 
     something familiar, the longing for something beautiful, for 
     something safe, with love and laughter and poetry and cold 
     lemonade and clean sheets, if it weren't for all that, Iraq 
     would be just like home--almost.

  I rise today to thank Captain Ryan Kelly and all of our Armed forces 
for their commitment to our country, and the sacrifice that all of them 
and their families are making.

                          ____________________