[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2103-2104]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



         MINNESOTA FATALITIES IN THE OAHU ARMY HELICOPTER CRASH

  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, I had planned to deliver this morning my 
first formal Senate remarks about the urgent need to provide 
prescription drug coverage for America's senior citizens. It is a 
crisis affecting many Minnesota seniors, and I will return to the floor 
very soon to address its urgency.
  However, I have decided to defer my first address, to show my deep 
respect for the courageous soldiers killed in the recent crash of two 
Army Black Hawk helicopters. Two of the victims were native 
Minnesotans: Sergeant Thomas E. Barber and Major Robert L. Olson.
  I offer my deepest condolences to the families and friends of Major 
Olson, Sergeant Barber, and the four other soldiers who gave their 
lives in the service of our country. We join with you in mourning their 
deaths, and we pay tribute to them for their ultimate sacrifice on 
behalf of our national defense. My prayers also extend to the eleven 
(11) other soldiers, who were injured in the accident. May they be 
graced with swift and complete recoveries.
  As President Abraham Lincoln stated in his famous address at 
Gettysburg, ``The world will little note nor long remember what we say 
here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the 
living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they 
who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to 
be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from 
these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which 
they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly 
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation 
under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the 
people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the 
earth.''
  This tragedy should remind us that, even during times of peace, our 
freedom and our security are neither free nor secure. They must 
continually be earned and protected, in order to be assured. For these 
always awesome, often invisible, and usually thankless 
responsibilities, we rely upon our Armed Forces, and especially upon 
the men and women in uniform.
  They risk their lives, so that we can enjoy our lives. And sometimes, 
they are called upon even to give up their lives, in order to safeguard 
our lives. They make the ultimate sacrifice; they

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pay the ultimate price; they commit the ultimate acts of heroism, so 
that we might be safe, secure, and free.
  All of us Americans owe these two Minnesotans, Major Robert L. Olson 
and Sergeant Thomas E. Barber, and their fellow soldiers a debt which 
we can never repay. We owe their families and friends our lifelong 
gratitude, support, and assistance for the burdens they must now bear 
on all our behalf. And we can only stand in awe and admiration as we 
witness such courage, such heroism, and such devotion as the men and 
women who serve their great country with their abilities and who 
protect it with their lives.

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