[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 22]
[Senate]
[Pages 30500-30501]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   HONORING TWO SOUTH DAKOTA SOLDIERS KILLED OVER THE WEEKEND IN IRAQ

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, yesterday was a national day of mourning 
in Italy. Tens of thousands of people lined a procession route and 
gathered at a basilica in Rome to pay their final respects to 19 
Italian soldiers killed last week in a truck bombing in Nasiriyah, 
Iraq. The soldiers' deaths mark Italy's worst military loss since World 
War II.
  The American people share Italy's sorrow over their enormous loss.
  There is also a profound sense of sorrow this week in South Dakota, 
Mr. President. Two of the 17 American soldiers killed last Saturday, 
when those 2 Army Black Hawk helicopters collided in the sky over the 
northern Iraqi city of Mosul, were from our State.
  South Dakota lost as many soldiers in that instant as we had lost in 
the entire Iraq war so far.
  We mourn our lost sons: Army CWO Scott Saboe; and Army PFC Sheldon 
Hawk Eagle.
  We also mourn the 15 soldiers lost with them, and all the 424 U.S. 
servicemembers who have given their lives, so far, in this war, as well 
as the sons and daughters of our allies who have been lost in this war.
  CWO Scott Saboe was 33 years old, a career soldier with 14 years of 
military service.
  He leaves behind his wife, Franceska, and their 6-year-old son, 
Dustin, who live in Alabama.
  His father, Arlo Saboe, with whom I just spoke, is a decorated 
Vietnam war veteran who lost his wife and brother in the last 2 years. 
His sister, Ann Remington, is stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical 
Center near Washington.
  Willow Lake, where Scott Saboe grew up, is a small town. Only about 
300 people live there. On Sunday, more than half of them stopped by 
Arlo Saboe's house to pay their condolences.
  Before Iraq, Scott Saboe had flown helicopters over the demilitarized 
zone in Korea. As his father told a reporter for the Sioux Falls Argus 
Leader, ``He was willing to go anywhere.''
  He reportedly was scheduled to return to the United States in 2 weeks 
for training.
  Today, at Willow Lake High School, where he played center on the 
football team, the flag has been lowered to half-staff.
  Bill Stobbs, a former teacher and football coach who now is the 
school's principal, told the Argus Leader:

       He died doing what he loved, and he was a dedicated 
     soldier. That's all there is to it.

  Darin Michalski, a childhood friend, said:

       Most of us can go through our whole lives and don't really 
     accomplish anything, and some of us only live to be 33, and 
     we're heroes.

  PFC Sheldon Hawk Eagle was just 21.
  He lived in Eagle Butte, on the Cheyenne River Sioux reservation, and 
was an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe--one of about 
90 members of the tribe deployed to Iraq.
  He was a descendant of the legendary Lakota warrior leader, Crazy 
Horse. His Lakota name was Wanbi Ohitika, ``Brave Eagle''.
  Like Scott Saboe, Sheldon Hawk Eagle grew up in a family that viewed 
military service as a citizen's duty. His grandfather, father and uncle 
all served.
  Friends and family members describe him as a hard-working, quiet 
young man. One of his former teachers remembers his ``nice smile.''
  His parents died when he was a young boy. He was raised by his aunt 
and uncle, Harvey and Fern Hawk Eagle.
  His only surviving sibling, his sister, Frankie Allyn Hawk Eagle, 
lives in Grand Forks, ND. He enlisted in Grand Forks, in June 2002, to 
be close to her.
  He was deployed to Iraq in March and reportedly had hoped to be home 
this coming February.
  Emmanuel Red Bear, a spiritual leader who teaches Lakota language and 
culture at Eagle Butte High School, remembered Hawk Eagle to a reporter 
as an aggressive, but fair, football player who was a model of 
sportsmanship on and off the field.
  Said Red Bear of Hawk Eagle:

       He was a role model, in his quiet way. The younger kids 
     looked up to him. . . . He really was a modern-day warrior.

  Tribal Chairman Harold Frazier said simply:

       He's our hero. He defended our country and protected our 
     freedom.

  News of Scott Saboe's and Sheldon Hawk Eagle's deaths reached their 
hometowns on Sunday. Many people first heard the news first at church 
services.
  It had been some time since South Dakota had lost anyone in Iraq.
  On May 9, CWO Hans Gukeisen, of Lead, was killed when the Black Hawk 
helicopter he was copiloting got caught in a power line and went down 
in the Tigris River.
  On June 18, PFC Michael Deuel of Nemo, was killed while on guard duty 
at a propane distribution center in Baghdad.
  The crash of the two Black Hawks last Saturday was the deadliest 
single incident since the United States invaded Iraq. The military is 
investigating whether enemy ground fire may have caused the crash.
  All 17 of the victims were from the Army's 101st Airborne Division--
the famed ``Screaming Eagles''--the same unit that parachuted into 
Normandy on D-Day.
  Like people in every state, South Dakotans sometimes focus on our 
superficial differences: East River versus West River, Native American 
versus the sons and daughters of pioneers and immigrants. Today, we are 
one State, united in sadness over the deaths of our soldiers, and pride 
over the noble lives they lived.
  I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.

[[Page 30501]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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