[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 2003]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING OUR ARMED FORCES


                        Sergeant Benjamin Gilman

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise today to speak in tribute to U.S. 
Army Sgt. Benjamin Gilman, of Meriden, Connecticut, who died in 
Afghanistan on January 29, 2004, at the age of 28.
  Sergeant Gilman was killed along with seven other American soldiers 
in a weapons cache explosion near the town of Ghazni. He was part of 
the 41st Engineer Battalion, 10th Mountain Division, based in Fort 
Drum, NY.
  Benjamin Gilman was always doing his best to help others, long before 
he enlisted in our Armed Forces. As a teenager, he won an award for his 
volunteer work at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center. When visiting 
his mother at her job at the Curtis Home for the elderly, he would 
spend time with the senior citizens who lived there, sharing 
conversations over games of checkers. While working at a fast food 
restaurant at the local mall, Benjamin made friends with a group of 
elderly women he would come to call his ``adopted grandmothers.''
  While he was committed to service of all kinds, it was always 
Benjamin Gilman's dream to serve his country in the military. Even as a 
7-year-old playing with action figures, young Benjamin told anyone who 
would listen that he would be a soldier someday.
  Benjamin was a special person for many people, and there were many 
people who were special to him. One of those people was Jean Moran. 
When Benjamin was 11 years old, he met Jean through a local Big 
Brother/Big Sister program. It was the first time that the program's 
organizers had assigned a big sister to a boy. But Jean became a 
fixture in Benjamin's life for years to come, taking on the role of the 
older sibling that he never had.
  Of all the bonds and friendships Benjamin had, though, none was more 
lasting or special than his relationship with his mother, Edie Gilman. 
A single mom, Edie poured her heart, soul, time, and energy into her 
only child. In the last letter he sent home from Iraq, Benjamin thanked 
his mother for everything she did for him, calling her his ``best 
friend in the entire world.''
  My heart truly goes out to Edie Gilman, who has suffered the kind of 
loss that is difficult for most of us to comprehend. We often speak of 
the weighty burden borne by our men and women in uniform--and 
rightfully so. But we would do well to also remember the burden placed 
on the shoulders of the families of these brave Americans.
  While our troops are defending our freedoms overseas, all across 
America there are husbands and wives who must bear the responsibility 
of raising children alone. There are sons and daughters who must do 
without a helping hand with their schoolwork, or an enthusiastic 
supporter at their soccer games. There are brothers and sisters who are 
missing a role model, a mentor, a friend.
  There are fathers and mothers, who endure anxious days and sleepless 
nights knowing that their children are in harm's way. And then there 
are people like Edie Gilman, who one day learn the heartbreaking news 
that someone they love will never be coming home.
  And so today I salute the courage, the commitment, and the conviction 
of Benjamin Gilman, a young man who lost his life fulfilling the 
noblest of callings, defending our Nation and the values we hold dear. 
And I offer my deepest and most heartfelt sympathies to Edie Gilman, 
who has made a sacrifice for her country that is too great for words.

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