[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 145 (Friday, September 12, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S8474]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        HONORING OUR ARMED FORCES


                    Staff Sergeant Kenneth W. Mayne

  Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, it is with a heavy heart that I rise 
today to honor the life and heroic service of SSG Kenneth W. Mayne. 
Staff Sergeant Mayne, a member of the 4th Infantry Division, was killed 
in a neighborhood outside of Baghdad on September 4, 2008, when a 
roadside bomb struck his vehicle. He was 29 years old.
   A graduate of Arvada West High School in Colorado, Staff Sergeant 
Mayne enlisted in the Army in 1997 at the age of 18. According to his 
mother, Michelle, he immediately took to the discipline and dedication 
to duty that defines the life of an American soldier. He chose to make 
service to country his career.
   He was first deployed to Iraq in 2003 with the 101st Airborne, and 
spent a year there in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
  Later, Staff Sergeant Mayne transferred to the 4th Infantry Division 
in Fort Hood, TX, because the division was scheduled to be moved to 
Fort Carson, CO, following its deployment to Iraq in March 2008. He 
loved Colorado and wanted to go home to be close to his family. 
Following his discharge, he intended to become a history teacher.
  Those who knew Kenneth described him as brave, as dedicated to his 
men, and as possessing a great empathy for the children of Iraq. During 
his patrols in Sadr City, one of the poorest and most volatile 
neighborhoods in the country, Kenneth distributed toys, soccer balls, 
and coloring books to Iraqi children that his mother had sent from 
home. Concerned about their health, he worked with his men to get fresh 
water into local schools and to clean up sewage so that children had a 
clean place to play. He believed in the work he was doing because he 
could see the difference he was making in people's lives.
  Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that, ``to share often and much . . . to 
know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is 
to have succeeded.''
  For all the Iraqi children who are better off, for all the 
neighborhoods that are safer, for all those whose image of America has 
been transformed, Staff Sergeant Mayne has succeeded. Staff Sergeant 
Mayne embodied an America that reaches out to those in need, an America 
brimming with kindness and compassion, an America that ``shares often 
and much.''
  For all this, and for his tireless service to his country, Sergeant 
Mayne has the eternal gratitude of his nation.
  To Kenneth's mother Michelle, his father, his stepfather Dan, his 
sisters Christina and Jennifer, his brother Danny, and all his friends 
and family, I cannot imagine the sorrow you must be feeling. I hope 
that, in time, the pain of your loss is assuaged by your pride in 
Kenneth's service to his country and by your knowledge that his country 
will never forget him. We are humbled by his service and his sacrifice.

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