[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 20527-20528]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                    TRIBUTE TO KRISTOFOR STONESIFER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Greenwood) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. GREENWOOD. Mr. Speaker, on September 11 when America was 
attacked, nearly every American had the same response and that was that 
we needed to immediately defend our people and defend our Nation 
against this evil, and the Congress, including this House, immediately 
after that attack, authorized force, military force to accomplish that 
end.
  Our military force are the airplanes and the aircraft carriers and 
the smart bombs and the weapons that we have, but that military force 
is nothing except for the men and women in our Armed Services, 
volunteers all, who fly those airplanes, who drive those ships, who 
leap out of airplanes with parachutes and are prepared to serve their 
country.
  Last weekend, we lost our first two fine American young military 
personnel, and one of those fine soldiers was from my district. His 
name was Kristofor Stonesifer, and he is the son of Rick and Ruth 
Stonesifer from Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
  Mr. Stonesifer, Jr., was a pretty extraordinary young man. He knew 
from a very young age that what he wanted to do was to be the best 
combat soldier this country had to offer. He left his service in ROTC 
because he wanted a greater challenge, and when he joined the Army 
Rangers, he found that challenge indeed.
  This was a young man who was aboard a helicopter in Pakistan, 
prepared to extract our special forces,

[[Page 20528]]

when as we know tragically that helicopter crashed and he lost his 
life.
  Mr. Speaker, we will undoubtedly lose more lives in this, what will 
probably be a protracted war, but the first of them was among the 
finest young men that we had to offer, and I on behalf of the House 
would like to extend my condolences and our condolences to his parents 
and remind ourselves as a House of Representatives, as a Congress and 
as a Nation that it is only because of the likes of Kristofor 
Stonesifer and his willingness to train and prepare for battle that we, 
in fact, can authorize force and can have a force that will prevail and 
will protect this country.

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