[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 85 (Thursday, May 22, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S4772]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           COLONEL EDWARD CYR

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, one of the great privileges that I 
have as a Member of this body is to travel around my home State of 
Rhode Island and hear directly from the people I was elected to serve. 
We are a small State, and we all know one another pretty well. So it is 
a pleasure to get out and listen to people, to hear what is on their 
minds, their good news and their bad news, and the challenges and the 
opportunities they and their families face each and every day.
  One of the things we do is to regularly hold community dinners around 
the State. My wife Sandra and I get together with folks over pasta and 
meatballs or hamburgers and hot dogs and we talk about the issues that 
are interesting to them.
  Mr. President, having the opportunity to hear people of my State 
share their stories this way has made such a difference in my work here 
in Washington. I say to the Presiding Officer, I know that as you 
represent the people in Florida, you feel very much the same way and 
I've heard you both in committee and on this floor give speeches and 
remarks that have focused on individual constituents of yours who had 
troubles and problems that they needed to attend to and you needed to 
attend to. So I know that you feel very much the same way.
  You know, we stand in this Chamber and we debate back and forth on 
the war in Iraq or the price of a gallon of gas or the crisis in the 
housing industry. But when we go back home, we see people who are 
living in the middle of these issues every day. In Rhode Island right 
now, there are parents worrying about their sons and daughters serving 
overseas in Iraq. There are families watching the numbers on the gas 
pump roll, roll, roll, flying higher and higher, and they are wondering 
how they are going to make ends meet. And there are working people who 
see their mortgage payments climb out of reach, and they face the 
gnawing, terrible fear that they might lose the home their children 
grew up in. So, as glorious as is this grand Chamber we have the 
opportunity to serve in, the reason we are really here is that it is 
all about them.
  And last Sunday evening, we had one of those moments. We hosted a 
community dinner in Bristol, RI, which is a beautiful, historic town on 
Rhode Island's East Bay. Bristol is known for many wonderful things, 
but one is the oldest--and I think the best--Fourth of July parade in 
the United States of America. So it was great to be in Bristol, and it 
was a beautiful evening. The day had been rainy, and toward the end of 
the day, the clouds had begun to open up and the evening Sun was 
shining through on the clouds above. The earth and the trees were still 
wet around, but they were lit up by the lit sky, and we were in this 
handsome stone VFW hall that is just a little bit back from Bristol 
Harbor. It was beautiful not only outside but inside because we had a 
wonderful group of people. And as the questions and answers were 
winding down toward the end of the evening, a man stood up and he took 
the microphone, and he began to speak.
  The man was COL Edward Cyr. Colonel Cyr is a 29-year veteran of the 
Army Reserves, 399th Combat Support Hospital. He has served two tours 
in Iraq, first in 2003 and then again from June 2006 to October 2007, 
and was also deployed to Kosovo in 2001. When he is not serving our 
country in the Army Reserves, Colonel Cyr is a nurse anesthetist at 
Saint Anne's Hospital in Massachusetts. He is a loving husband to his 
wife Patricia, and he is the father to five daughters.
  Colonel Cyr wanted to tell me about a provision in the 2008 Defense 
authorization bill which grants early retirement eligibility to 
reservists and National Guard members who have served on Active Duty 
since September 11, to allow these individuals to gain 3 months of 
retirement eligibility for every 90 days of Active service.
  He was concerned that the effective date of the legislation was set 
for the date of its passage, and that it did not reach back to 
September 11 to pick up all the veterans who had served since that 
date. I agreed to help him with that legislation, to make the date of 
the early retirement provision retroactive to September 11, 2001, so 
that it would reach every veteran in this conflict who served our 
country and carried the burden of a disastrous war policy with such 
great honor and dignity.
  And often people come with a specific request like that, but that was 
not what was significant about this. What was significant about this 
was that Colonel Cyr took the chance to tell his story.
  He spoke of the strains of his multiple deployments which have 
weighed so heavily upon him and his family. He spoke of the blood of 
the wounded soldiers he worked on, on his hands, on his clothes, in his 
very pores. He spoke of their service and their loss and his pride in 
the men and women who served beside him. When he was done, the big room 
was quiet.
  I asked him--I was a little embarrassed to ask because I did not want 
to ask a personal question that might not be welcome, but I asked him 
anyway: I said, Colonel, if I may ask a personal question, what was 
your family situation through all of this? He paused a minute, and he 
said: Well, Senator, I am glad you asked that question because my wife 
is sitting right beside me. And he proudly pointed her out, and he said 
this: For all those months, over three tours, she had to go it alone, 
raising my five daughters, and I want to take this chance to thank her 
because if it weren't for her, I wouldn't have had a home to come home 
to.
  Mr. President, you could have heard a pin drop. There was not a dry 
eye in the House, including my own. And the room then burst into 
applause.
  Mr. President, this was just one of those moments--just one of those 
moments. I do not think I can explain it, and frankly, I do not even 
want to try because if I tried to explain it, I would just make it 
smaller. So all I want to say, as we all leave this glorious Chamber to 
go home to our States to celebrate this Memorial Day weekend, for all 
the Edward Cyrs and for all the Patricia Cyrs across this country, 
thank you and God bless you.
  Mr. President, I believe there is no quorum present.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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