[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 170 (Friday, October 12, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1402-E1403]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          AMERICAN SOLDER, SPECIALIST DONALD E. VALENTINE III

                                 ______
                                 

                              HON. TED POE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 12, 2018

  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, ``The soldier is the Army,'' and 
``wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men.'' While we 
mourn those men who die, ``We should thank God such men ever lived.'' 
These are the words of General George Patton in World War II.
  One of those soldiers was Specialist Donald E. Valentine III of the 
United States Army. He was born in Houston, Texas, on March 5, 1986. 
Donald Valentine joined the United States Army because of the 9/11 
attack on this country.
  His mother Anna said, ``My husband and I were behind Donald 100 
percent. I was so proud of him no matter what he ever did. He made me 
very proud to be his mother.'' Those are the words from another of 
America's Gold Star Mothers.
  I met Anna Valentine and many members of the Valentine family at the 
Veterans National Cemetery in Houston, where mothers like Anna, who had 
children killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, were being honored. We call 
those noble women Gold Star Mothers. Anna Valentine's son is buried on 
that hallowed ground of the fallen in Houston, Texas.

[[Page E1403]]

  Specialist Valentine was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry 
Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division of the Stryker Brigade 
Combat Team from Fort Lewis, Washington. Specialist Valentine was 
killed along with two other soldiers on September 18, 2007, in 
Muqdadiyah, Iraq, when an lED, an improvised explosive device, 
detonated near him.
  Mr. Speaker, you understand the use of an lED by America's enemy is a 
coward's way of fighting the war. These enemies rant and rave and 
preach hate in the name of religion, but they cover their faces with 
masks and hide in caves and dark, dusty ditches. They are afraid to 
come out in the open and face the American soldier. So our enemy 
detonates remote-controlled bombs.
  Specialist Donald Valentine III's military roots run deep. His 
father, Donald II, is a Navy veteran. His brother Daniel, who was 19 at 
the time, wanted to enlist to be with his brother Donald in Iraq. 
America owes much to families like the Valentines. Being from a 
military family, he moved around a lot as a child. He lived in Florida 
most of his life and also in Idaho, but wanted to be buried in ``Big 
H,'' as he called Houston, Texas, because of many reasons. One of those 
reasons was because he spent so much time growing up with his 
grandparents who live in Houston.
  Donald was married for one year to Lucia, who said ``Donald had all 
the qualities any girl would want.'' She had talked to Donald on their 
first anniversary, 3 days before his death in Iraq. Specialist 
Valentine told his family that, ``if he did not survive the war, they 
should stay strong.'' He was the 91st fallen service member with ties 
to the Houston area to have been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.
  A statement has been credited to one of Rome's centurions when he 
told his troops, ``How you yet live will echo throughout eternity.'' 
Specialist Valentine lived a short but faithful life to the things that 
were important to him: family and country. He was 21 when he was 
killed.
  Mr. Speaker, General George Patton was right about such warriors. We 
should thank God that such men as Specialist Donald Valentine III ever 
lived.
  And that's just the way it is.

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