[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 80 (Thursday, May 15, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S4212]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING OUR ARMED FORCES


                     corporal joseph h. cantrell iv

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to the 
undaunted courage and fighting spirit of one soldier from the 
Commonwealth of Kentucky. CPL Joseph H. Cantrell IV was lost on April 
4, 2007, in Taji, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated 
near his vehicle during combat operations. The Westwood, KY, native was 
23 years old.
  For his valor in uniform, Corporal Cantrell received several awards, 
medals and decorations, including the National Defense Service Medal, 
the Army Commendation Medal, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Purple 
Heart.
  After Corporal Cantrell was gone, his mother, Sondra Adkins, met a 
woman at a hospital who said that her nephew was also a soldier. He had 
been wounded and then saved by an Army medic, and now was going to name 
his son after the medic who had treated him. That medic's name was 
Joey.
  ``My son saved her nephew's life,'' Sondra reveals.
  Those who knew Joey growing up in Boyd County, in northeastern 
Kentucky, were not surprised at the impact the young man could have on 
others. Sondra remembers when an excited Joey called her to say ``there 
is nothing more beautiful than bringing a baby into the world.''
  ``By chance, he got to deliver a baby during his Army training,'' 
Sondra says. ``He was high on life that day. That wasn't a planned 
event. He called and said, `You're not going to believe this . . . I 
got to deliver a baby.' ''
  Joey was an Army medic who saved lives in Iraq. He brought the same 
enthusiasm to his job that he once had as a child who would dress up in 
camouflage and green paint on Halloween and go out as ``G.I. Joey.''
  At Westwood's Fairview High School, Joey was a member of Who's Who 
and the National Honors Society, and played football and ran track.
  ``I didn't want him to run track because he was so short,'' Sondra 
recalls. ``The hurdles came up to his hipbone. But he could clear those 
hurdles and come out . . . as the best hurdle jumper. . . . Track was 
his calling. He could flat-out fly.''
  Joey's dad, Joe Cantrell, remembers eating lunch with his son just 
before a big hurdle race. ``We went to eat and Joey told me, `Dad, I'm 
going to win this because they don't think I can,' '' Joe says. ``When 
the gun went off, all they saw was his back end. When he'd get his 
confidence built up, he was fun to watch in sports.''
  ``Joey had the perfect life in high school,'' Sondra adds. ``Dating 
the head cheerleader, excelling on the football team. He was very 
outgoing.''
  Joey graduated from Fairview in 2002, and attended Ashland Community 
College. One day he came to his mother and said, ``Mom, I have 
something to prove.''
  ``I said, `You don't have anything to prove to anybody,' '' Sondra 
says. ``He replied, `You're right. I have to prove this to myself.' I 
was prepared for my son to move out, but I wasn't prepared for my son 
to live halfway around the world.''
  Joey enlisted in the U.S. Army on March 31, 2005. ``He joined the 
Army to see how high he could fly without someone to catch him,'' his 
father, Joe, says. ``There was no quit in him.''
  Joey was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st 
Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, based out of Fort Hood, TX, 
and in October 2006, he was deployed to Iraq in support of Operation 
Iraqi Freedom.
  One day he called his mom from Iraq after saving a fellow soldier's 
life. ``Mama, the only thing the soldier was worried about was if he 
would be able to walk again and continue serving his country,'' he told 
her.
  ``He loved his job,'' Sondra adds. ``They're out there to do a job 
just like all of us--but theirs is the most dangerous of all.''
  Joe says that Joey eventually wanted to study sports medicine. Sondra 
recalls Joey wanting to be a doctor, perhaps an obstetrician.
  On the day of Joey's funeral, students from the local schools lined 
up alongside the road holding flags to watch the procession drive by. 
``I couldn't believe the turnout from the community,'' Sondra says. The 
city of Westwood dedicated Main Street in Joey's memory.
  Mr. President, our prayers are with the Cantrell family after their 
tragic loss. We are thinking of Joey's mother, Sondra Adkins; his 
father, Joe Cantrell; his brother, Chase Adkins; his stepfather, Bryan 
Adkins; his grandmother, Pehylien Mullins; his aunts Anita Hollo, 
Jeannie Mullins, Elisa Lambert, and Janie Hill; and other beloved 
family members and friends. Joey was predeceased by his grandfather, 
Claude Mullins.
  At Boyd County High School in Ashland, a teacher named Mary Beth 
Leadingham Patton started ``Project Joey.'' Mary Beth is an old friend 
of Joey's mother, Sondra.
  ``She was one of the first visitors to come to my house to see my 
Joey when he was born,'' Sondra recalls.
  Project Joey is simple: When Mary Beth's kids pass someone in 
uniform, they stop and say thank you.
  ``Those young men and those young women--we truly do not know what 
they've had to see in their lives,'' Sondra says. ``We should always be 
thankful that we have someone who's gone that extra mile for all of 
us.''
  Sondra, of course, does know some of what our men and women in 
uniform have seen, as she watched her little Joey grow into a man, a 
patriot and a dedicated soldier.
  And although he is gone, it is not too late to thank CPL Joseph H. 
Cantrell IV. This United States Senate is honored to pay tribute to his 
life of service, and we pause with reverence for the sacrifice he made 
on his Nation's behalf.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

                          ____________________