[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6944-6945]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               MOURNING THE LOSS OF PRIVATE AARON HUDSON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I received an announcement this morning 
from the Department of the Army. It is a casualty announcement that 
unfortunately we all receive from time to time, and it says: ``The 
United States Army announces the loss of Private Aaron M. Hudson, 20, 
of Highland Village, Texas, who died on April 16, 2005 in Taji, Iraq, 
in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. According to initial reports, 
Private Hudson died from injuries sustained on April 15, 2005, when an 
improvised explosive device detonated near his patrol.
  Private Hudson was assigned to the 401st Military Police Company, the 
720th Military Police Battalion out of Fort Hood, Texas.
  Private Hudson's family resides in Highland Village, Texas. The Army 
extends heartfelt sympathy and condolences to his family who have 
suffered this loss.''
  Well, Mr. Speaker, I thought I should do something to perhaps fill in 
a little bit more about the life of Private Hudson; and although I did 
not know Private Hudson, we did reside in the same city for a while.
  Private Hudson was a 2002 graduate of Marcus High School in Flower 
Mound, Texas. He joined the Army a year ago and left for Iraq in 
January, and he was serving at the 401st Military Police Company.
  Mr. Speaker, the majority of the information that I am going to tell 
the House tonight came from a newspaper article in the Dallas Morning 
News from Monday, April 18, 2005; and I will insert that into the 
Record at the conclusion of my remarks.
  Private Hudson was traveling in a convoy between Baghdad and Camp 
Taji on Friday performing a routine patrol delivering mail, Mr. Hudson, 
his father, said. He was the gunner in his military police team and was 
charged with security at the rear of the convoy when a roadside bomb 
exploded. A large piece of shrapnel shot through his body armor and 
struck him in the chest.
  Private Hudson was born May 17, 1984, in Dallas. He played baseball, 
soccer, and basketball growing up; but his main high school sport was 
golf.

                              {time}  1945

  Mr. Speaker, I received a phone call from a Highland Village 
policeman, Chuck Barr, who was a next-door neighbor of Private Hudson.
  Chuck being a policeman, you might imagine is somewhat circumspect 
about young men as they grow up. But he had no such reservations about 
Aaron Hudson. He told me that he trusted Aaron completely. He and his 
wife, Dawn, frequently used Aaron as a baby-sitter for their young 
children. And the photograph provided to me by Chuck Barr, the 
policeman in Highland Village, shows him and Mr. Barr's son sitting at 
their home in Highland Village.
  Officer Barr related that Aaron had fun, but he never got into 
trouble. He said he and his wife, Dawn, used to always know when Aaron 
arrived home at night because his truck was a little bit loud as it 
pulled into the driveway next door.
  Mr. Speaker, I cannot even imagine the pain that Mark Hudson and 
Angela Hudson, Aaron's parents, are going through this evening and this 
week. I called Mark Hudson today, and even though he was suffering 
enormously, he did take the time to talk to me a little bit about his 
son and his son's life. I told him that I would be speaking on the 
floor of the House tonight about his son.
  And he said, I want you to tell the other Members of Congress that 
his son, Aaron, was proud to be a soldier. He said, As a father, I 
could not ask for more than for my child to go and help people halfway 
across the world, people he had never met before, to go and help them, 
and to give his life in trying to extricate them from tyranny.
  Mr. Hudson wanted this body to know how much he supported the other 
young men and women over in Iraq this evening, how much he supported 
them in their effort to provide freedom for the Iraqi people.
  Mr. Hudson told me that Aaron loved to be called a soldier. Mr. 
Hudson reminded me that tonight in the Hudson household the casualty 
rate is at 100 percent, but still he wanted me to convey that he and 
his family harbored no ill will against the Iraqi people. It was clear 
in Mr. Hudson's mind his son had been murdered by criminals, by a 
criminal element in the country of Iraq and not the Iraqi people that 
his son had gone to help.
  Mr. Hudson also asked me to say a special note of thanks to a 
gentleman, and unfortunately Mr. Hudson did not know this gentleman's 
first name or his rank, but he was with Aaron in the 401st Military 
Police Division. The man's name is Robertson. He went through basic 
training with Aaron and they deployed together in Iraq, and it was 
Robertson who got young Aaron onto the medivac helicopter, and probably 
it was Mr. Robertson who heard Aaron's last words.
  Mr. Hudson said that the letters he got back from his son were always 
upbeat. He never complained about things like the food. He never 
complained about his life in Iraq. He loved the camaraderie and the 
structure of being around his fellow soldiers. Mr. Hudson said in the 
newspaper article, Let's face it, he would rather have been home, but 
he knew why he was there and he knew his being there was important.
  Well, Mark Hudson, Angela Hudson, I want you to know that just as we 
heard the gentlewoman from Florida, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, say when she 
was speaking of her stepson that was going to be deployed, on behalf of 
a grateful Nation, we say, ``Thank you.'' As Aaron comes home this 
week, I again would say, Thank you.

             [From the Dallas Morning News, April 18, 2005]

                    Highland Village Soldier Killed

                        (By Christy A. Robinson)

       An Army private from Highland Village died in Iraq on 
     Saturday, a day after he was struck by shrapnel from a 
     roadside bomb.
       Pvt. Aaron Hudson, 20, was a 2002 graduate of Marcus High 
     School in Flower Mound. He had joined the Army almost a year 
     ago and left for Iraq in January. He was serving with the 
     401st Military Police Company.
       ``He liked being called a soldier,'' said his father, Mark 
     Hudson. ``My son died doing what he wanted to do. As a 
     father, you can ask no more for your children than to 
     willingly help other people.''
       Pvt. Hudson was traveling in a convoy between Baghdad and 
     Camp Taji on Friday,

[[Page 6945]]

     performing a routine patrol and delivering mail, Mr. Hudson 
     said.
       He was the gunner in his military police team and was 
     charged with security at the rear of the convoy when a 
     roadside bomb exploded. A large piece of shrapnel shot 
     through his body armor and struck him in the chest.
       ``We knew in the back of our mind that this could happen,'' 
     Mr. Hudson said. ``The people of Iraq, did not kill my son . 
     . . the criminal element in Iraq killed my son. He was there 
     to help the Iraqi people.''
       Pvt. Hudson was born May 17, 1984, in Dallas. He played 
     select-level baseball, soccer and basketball growing up, but 
     his main high school sport was golf.
       He always felt at ease around people of any age, especially 
     around his grandfather's golfing buddies. ``He loved to play 
     golf with those men. Those men loved him, too,'' Mr. Hudson 
     said.
       Pvt. Hudson conducted extensive research into which branch 
     of the military he would join, his father said, before 
     settling on being a military police officer in the Army.
       ``The thing that makes it odd is we aren't a military 
     family,'' Mr. Hudson said. ``He sent us a letter the fourth 
     week into basic [training]. Basic training is supposed to be 
     tough. And he said, `Man, Dad. This is fun.' I knew then he 
     made the right decision.''
       Pvt. Hudson spoke to his family by telephone two or three 
     times a week. The last time that he spoke with his parents 
     was the Tuesday before he was killed to wish them a happy 
     25th wedding anniversary.
       Pvt. Hudson's phone calls and letters were never negative, 
     his father said.
       ``The food was never terrible, the conditions were never 
     terrible,'' he said. ``You would think the letters would 
     start off with, `This sucks.' But they were never like that. 
     It's made this a whole lot easier.''
       Mr. Hudson said his son's best friends were fellow 
     soldiers.
       ``He loved the camaraderie and the structure,'' Mr. Hudson 
     said. ``Let's face it, he'd rather been home. But he knew why 
     he was there, and he knew him being there was important.''
       Pvt. Hudson's body was expected to arrive at Dover Air 
     Force Base in Delaware early this morning. His body will be 
     returned to North Texas by the end of the week, Mr. Hudson 
     said.
       Funeral arrangements are pending. Pvt. Hudson's battalion 
     in Iraq will hold a memorial service for him Wednesday.
       In addition to his father, Pvt. Hudson is survived by his 
     mother, Annette Hudson of Highland Village; a sister, Lezlie 
     Hudson of Dallas; grandparents David and Fredrika Hudson of 
     Mount Pleasant, Texas; and great-grandparents Ed and Loise 
     Huddleston of Lewisville.

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