[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 121 (Thursday, July 18, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4930-S4931]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Remembering Corporal Benjamin Kopp

  Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, 10 years ago today, CPL Benjamin Kopp's 
spirit departed from this world, but he remains with us in far more 
than memory.
  Ben was raised in Minnesota, where his mother described him as a 
boy's boy. He played in the dirt with toy trucks and revered his great-
grandfather, a decorated veteran from World War II.
  Then came 9/11, which changed Ben's life forever, just as it changed 
the lives of so many Americans. Ben was only 13--little more than a 
boy--but on that day of tragedy, he felt the call of duty to his 
country. Moreover, he sensed a rendezvous with destiny. Remembering his 
great-grandfather, the heroic veteran, Ben enlisted in the U.S. Army at 
the age of 18, shipping off for basic training at Fort Benning not long 
after his high school graduation. There, he grew into a man and an Army 
Ranger. He was assigned to fight with the Army's famed 75th Ranger 
Regiment.
  He served two deployments in Iraq and then went to Afghanistan in 
2009. There, Ben and his buddies were exposed to heavy combat, as 
Rangers usually are. On June 10, 2009, they were engaged in an hours-
long, intense firefight with Taliban insurgents in Helmand Province. 
Ben was leading a machine gun crew, providing suppressive fire for a 
group of Rangers amid enemy onslaught. Ben exposed himself and was shot 
behind the knee right in an artery. He was evacuated from the 
battlefield and placed in an induced coma.
  Despite the surgeon's best efforts, Ben never recovered from the loss 
of blood and cardiac arrest he had suffered. Eight days later, on July 
18, 2009, at the age of only 21, at Walter Reed Medical Center, Ben 
Kopp returned home to the Lord. Yet Ben is with us still. The heart of 
this Ranger beats on even today. Let me explain.
  Before deploying, Ben did a lot of paperwork, as all soldiers do. On 
one form, he checked the box to be an organ donor. Where it asked which 
organs he wished to donate, he simply wrote ``any that are needed.'' In 
death, as in life, Ben lived up to the Ranger creed. He shouldered more 
than his share of the task, ``one-hundred-percent and then some.'' So 
just 2 days after Ben's heart stopped beating, it beat anew in the 
chest of Judy Meikle, an Illinois woman who waited 7 months just to get 
on the organ donation list. ``How can you have a better heart,'' Judy 
said as she recovered. ``I have the heart of a 21-year-old Army Ranger 
war hero beating in me.''
  Ultimately, scores of people came to benefit from the sacrifice of 
this young soldier in Minnesota from his very blood and bones. Four 
lives were saved, all told, because Ben gave his all, his very body, 
for their sake. Ben departed 10 years ago, but his legacy lives on in 
the patients whose lives he touched and through the brave work of his 
mother, Jill, who has devoted her life to veterans' causes. This year, 
she organized the second annual Freedom Walk to the Wall and challenged 
America to walk 1 million miles in honor of our fallen heroes.

  The tragedy of Ben's loss has touched Jill in unexpected ways as 
well. She has remained close with the Army Rangers who served alongside 
Ben and even with those who had never met him. Just recently, two 
freshly minted Rangers from Minnesota reached out to speak with Jill. 
You could say that she lost her son but gained a family of Rangers.
  In Genesis, it is written that the Lord God created Eve in the rib of 
Adam, the first man. When God brought her to Adam, He said, ``This is 
now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.'' That mysterious passage 
takes on new meaning when we reflect on stories like Ben's.
  Thanks to his willing sacrifice, Ben connected with scores of his 
countrymen in one of the most intimate ways imaginable. For all time, 
they will remain bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. Rangers lead 
the way. That is what new Rangers learn at Fort Benning. In life and in 
death, CPL Ben Kopp led the way, and his story will inspire us for many 
years to come, for, indeed, he is with us still.
  I yield the floor.

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