[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 179 (Friday, December 4, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S12409]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING OUR ARMED FORCES


                     corporal anthony carrasco, jr.

  Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. President, I rise today to honor a brave 
son of Anthony, NM.
  Army CPL Anthony Carrasco Jr. was killed November 4 after being hit 
by sniper fire while serving his country in Iraq. He was 25 years old.
  Corporal Carrasco--or ``Tony'' as he was called by family and 
friends--was a husband and father and son. He and his wife Johana are 
expecting a child. And he had two small step-children who adored him.
  Tony served as truck commander for armored vehicles. It was his job 
to direct his vehicle down streets infested with roadside bombs and 
targeted by insurgents attacking from the shadows of buildings. Tony 
understood the danger. He accepted the risk. And he died doing what he 
loved, serving a country he loved.
  His fellow soldiers described Tony as an optimist. His platoon 
sergeant, Timothy Brown, put it best: Tony ``saw the good in 
everything. He was a soldier who never, ever complained.'' Sergeant 
Brown called Tony ``the best soldier I ever had.''
  As Senators or as citizens, we cannot fully experience the sadness 
that Tony's family and friends are feeling. But when a soldier dies, 
the Nation as a whole feels the loss. We are linked to Corporal 
Carrasco by the ties that bind a grateful Nation to its faithful 
servant. His loss is ours.
  Please join me in honoring Anthony Carrasco, and extending our 
sympathies to his wife Johana, his father Antonio, his mother Juana, 
and the rest of the Carrasco family.


                       specialist joseph gallegos

  Mr. President, I want to acknowledge the recent passing of brave New 
Mexican. Joseph Gallegos, a specialist with the New Mexico Army 
National Guard, died of a heart attack while serving in Iraq.
  While his death was not due to injuries suffered in combat, that fact 
does not lessen the pain of his loss.
  Specialist Gallegos was 39 years old. He served with the Guard as a 
light wheel vehicle mechanic. When not serving his country, he worked 
for the Forest Service on the Carson back home in Questa, NM. 
Throughout his life, he also worked as a firefighter, an ambulance 
driver and a policeman.
  Specialist Gallegos gravitated toward work that allowed him to help 
his fellow citizens. While working for the Forest Service, he even 
saved a life--spotting a burning truck one day, he saw a man inside and 
pulled him to safety.
  As Specialist Gallegos' brother, Donald, said: ``He was always taking 
different jobs, but they always put him in the service of others.''
  Today, I ask you to join me in thanking Specialist Gallegos' family 
for his service, and for his sacrifice.

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