[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 190 (Wednesday, December 12, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S15229]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO CHARLES M. EVERS

 Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, I am honored to publicly recognize 
an Idahoan who has received one of our Nation's highest military 
honors, the Silver Star Medal. United States Marine Corps SSG Charles 
M. Evers, of Lewiston, ID, was awarded this medal for ``conspicuous 
gallantry and intrepidity in action against the enemy while serving as 
Platoon Commander, 3d Platoon, India Company, 3d Battalion, 5th 
Marines, Regimental Combat Team, 1 Marine Expeditionary Force Forward 
in Support of Operation Iraqi Freedom from 8 June to 12 June 2006.'' 
Over the course of a 4-day firefight, Sergeant Evers led his platoon in 
withstanding and repulsing a platoon-sized enemy attack that, on the 
third day, included a massive truck bomb that burst through the entry 
control point at an observation post the Marines were defending. During 
this fight, approximately 60 well-trained insurgents attempted, but 
were unable to take the observation post held by Evers' 22 marines, a 
fight in which no Americans perished. Citing repeated decisive combat 
leadership under intense and sustained machine gun and small arms fire, 
General James T. Conway, Commandant of the Marine Corps, recognized 
Sergeant Evers' ``resolve'' and ``refusal to submit to the enemy's 
will'' in the Silver Star Medal Citation.
  As you know, the Silver Star is the Nation's third highest combat 
medal behind the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross, Distinguished 
Service Cross or Air Force Cross. Sergeant Evers' extraordinary 
achievement recognizes his unflinching commitment to our Nation, his 
fellow soldiers and the mission for which he was trained. Sergeant 
Evers' courage and skill rivals his humility: when given the Silver 
Star, he said, ``I was just doing my job. I'm proud of my Marines. I 
led them and they did their job.''
  I am honored and proud to call Sergeant Evers a fellow Idahoan, and I 
thank him for his bravery, patriotism and commitment to and support of 
the military mission of the United States of America. Most of all, I 
thank him and his fellow Marines for continuing to defend my freedom 
and that of my family.

                          ____________________