[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 11 (Thursday, January 24, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S227]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S227]]
                       HONORING OUR ARMED FORCES


                Chief Petty Officer Gregory J. Billiter

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I rise today to pay tribute to a 15-
year veteran of the U.S. Navy who was lost in service to his country. 
That man is CPO Gregory J. Billiter of Villa Hills, KY. He was 36 years 
old.
  Chief Billiter was serving near Kirkuk, Iraq, as part of a Navy 
Explosive Ordnance disposal unit charged with defusing the many 
improvised explosives and booby traps that terrorists have set in Iraq. 
He was the tactical commander of the third vehicle in a five-vehicle 
convoy patrolling the area. On April 6, 2007, his vehicle was struck by 
explosives, tragically taking Chief Billiter's life.
  Assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit 11, based out of Whidbey 
Island, WA, this was Chief Billiter's third tour of duty in Iraq. For 
bravery and valor while wearing the uniform, he received numerous 
medals and awards, including the Bronze Star Medal with Combat 
Distinguishing Device for Valor and the Purple Heart.
  To recount Chief Billiter's life and career is to recount one 
achievement after another, because Greg was no stranger to success. 
``The driving force in all those things was competition,'' says Barry 
Billiter, his father. ``He was very competitive.''

       Growing up, Greg led his friends in whiffleball games, 
     racing Big Wheels, or swinging over the creek on a vine, 
     Tarzan-style. He played basketball and soccer in high school, 
     and whatever they played, Greg often declared himself the 
     winner or demanded a rematch. He was a ``dyed-in-the-wool'' 
     Cincinnati Bengals fan.

  He was a good kid--the police only had to visit Greg's parents once. 
That was the time Greg, his brother Jeff, and some neighborhood friends 
sat on a rock in the woods and refused to budge for the bulldozers that 
had come to clear the way for a new shopping center.
  ``Greg was all of 6 years old at the time,'' the Billiter family 
writes in a letter about Greg sent to family and friends that they have 
generously shared with me. ``How was he ever able to get security 
clearance with that on his record?''
  Greg attended St. Pius X and St. Joseph Elementary Schools. As a 
fourth-grader, one of his teachers told him he would never make it at 
Covington Latin School, a competitive private high school in northern 
Kentucky. If anything could motivate Greg, it was a challenge. He 
graduated from Covington Latin in 1987 at the age of 16.
  Greg went to the University of Dayton and graduated with a bachelor's 
degree in marketing at age 19. After college, Greg worked for a while 
at the Levi Strauss Company but was unfulfilled. So one day he came 
home to his parents and announced he had joined the Navy, just like his 
father, Barry, a Navy veteran. Greg entered basic training in January 
1992 in Orlando, FL, and graduated as the Honor Recruit.
  He served aboard many ships, including the USS Durham, USS Duluth, 
USS Carl Vinson, USS Ronald Reagan, and USS Nimitz. In 1994, he 
qualified for and finished Navy Seal training. After a knee injury, he 
could no longer continue as a Seal but qualified as a surface warfare 
specialist. Chief Billiter kept busy. He also qualified as a Naval 
parachutist, a scuba and MK-16 mixed gas diving supervisor, a 
demolitions operations supervisor, and a helicopter rope suspension 
tactics specialist.
  From 1997 to 2001, Greg served in Canton, OH, as a Naval recruiter. 
Then he transferred to specialize in explosive ordnance disposal and 
found that defusing explosives was the job he had been looking for.
  ``When he talked about it, his eyes would light up,'' says Greg's 
aunt, Paula Snow. ``He loved the science of it.'' Explosive ordnance 
disposal specialists are trained to deal with explosive threats on land 
or underwater, including anything chemical, biological, and even 
nuclear. Greg conducted numerous EOD missions throughout the world and 
trained the foreign special operation units of France, Uruguay, Chile, 
Peru, and Qatar.
  During his third tour in Iraq, Greg's team contributed to the 
collection and destruction of over 2,500 ordnance items, totaling over 
5,800 pounds of net explosives weight. When he was off duty, he 
organized sports games, such as an Ultimate Frisbee competition of the 
older sailors versus the younger ones. He competed in the Navy's 
Ironman competition.
  In 1994, while serving on board a ship home-ported in San Diego, Greg 
met April, a middle-school science teacher in that city. She understood 
a sailor's life well, having grown up the daughter of a Navy chief 
corpsman.
  Greg and April married in November 1996 at St. Joseph Church in 
Crescent Springs, KY. Together they had a son, Cooper John Billiter. 
Greg hoped little Cooper would grow up to play sports.
  Greg will be forever loved and remembered by his family and loved 
ones who are in my prayers now as I relate Greg's story to the Senate. 
Those family members include his wife, April; his son, Cooper; his 
mother, Pat; his father, Barry; his brothers Jeff, Kevin, and David 
Billiter; his sisters Beth Billiter and Jill New; his aunts Paula Snow 
and Barbara Horton; and his grandmothers Virginia Billiter and Clara 
Bosch.
  When Greg was a senior in high school, he attended a Senior Christian 
Awakening Retreat. For the first time, he told his parents: Thank you 
for being such a good Mom and Dad and thank you for all the sacrifices 
you have made for me.
  This young man who learned the meaning of sacrifice at an early age 
grew up to become a beloved husband and father himself who made the 
ultimate sacrifice for his country. I want the Billiter family to know 
that America and the U.S. Senate will always remember that sacrifice, 
and we salute CPO Gregory J. Billiter and his service to our country.
  I yield the floor.

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