[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 18453-18454]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO SCOTT ERWIN

  (Mr. DeLAY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, so many times in our lives, blessings appear 
to us without our knowing. At other times, Providence just slaps us in 
the face.

[[Page 18454]]

  In the summer of 2002, a young man named Scott Erwin, a senior at the 
University of Richmond, came to work in my office as an intern and made 
an immediate impact on my staff. To the staff assistants who supervised 
him and the senior staff who gave him his assignments, Scott revealed 
himself in short order as a special young man, a man of intelligence, 
humor and gumption. He was the kind of man who was going to make a 
difference in the world and leave it better than he found it.
  Toward that end, while Scott's classmates spent their senior year 
taking gut courses and working on their graduate school applications, 
Scott went to Iraq. He transported a class on American democracy, which 
he had developed and taught as a student at Richmond to the Coalition 
Provisional Authority in Iraq, where he taught the class to Iraqi 
university students. He showed them how the institutions and history of 
American democracy might be translated into Iraqi culture to help the 
liberated Iraqi people build a democratic society of their own.
  On his way back from class one Wednesday this past June, Scott's car 
was ambushed by terrorists, either Saddam loyalists or foreign killers. 
They riddled the car with bullets, killing two of those inside. Scott 
himself was hit three times, once in each arm, once in the abdomen. His 
life was saved twice in those terrifying moments, once by the 
translator sitting next to him who pulled him under the seats and once 
by a very small battery he was carrying near his identification card 
over his heart which deflected the bullet that would have otherwise 
killed him. Iraqi police scared off the terrorists and Scott received 
immediate medical attention. He was soon flown to Germany and then home 
to the United States, where he is still recovering from his wounds and 
the surgeries conducted to save his life.
  It makes you wonder how you spent your senior year in college.
  As I said, Mr. Speaker, sometimes Providence is not a breeze but a 
hurricane. Sometimes it comes in the shape of a battery, and sometimes 
it comes in the shape of an intrepid 22-year-old serving his country 
and all countries in the cause of human freedom.
  Scott Erwin came to work for me in 2002 and gave my office a jolt of 
enthusiasm and wit, to say nothing of extraordinary candlepower. Those 
are the traits he took with him to Iraq and the traits he brings with 
him every day to physical therapy as he continues to recover.
  Today, Scott Erwin is back at the University of Richmond, still 
fighting, still working, finishing his degree in political science and 
the classics. He does not know I am even here speaking these words 
about him, and maybe that is how he would prefer it. But these words 
deserve the saying just the same.
  So, Scott, wherever you are, on behalf of everyone in my office and 
everyone here on Capitol Hill, thank you for your service, thank you 
for your courage, and we all look forward to seeing what you do with 
both of them in the future.
  Good luck, Scott, and God bless you.

                          ____________________