[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 21530-21531]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       ARMY PFC NICHOLAS MADARAS

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, today I wish to speak in honor of U.S. Army 
PFC Nicholas Madaras, of Wilton, CT, who was killed in Iraq on 
September 3, 2006. He was 19 years old.
  Private Madaras, a member of the 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 
3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, was fatally wounded 
when a bomb detonated near his dismounted patrol in Baqouba, Iraq.
  A 2005 graduate of Wilton High School, Nicholas excelled both in the 
classroom and on the soccer field, where he started for 3 years and 
served as the team manager. Among the students, teachers, and coaches, 
he was known as a genuine person, one who led by example and cared 
about the people around him.
  Nicholas enlisted in the Army shortly before graduation and arrived 
in Iraq in February of this year. He was proud to be a soldier and 
approached his assignment as a driver of a Humvee in a security escort 
with the same leadership and intensity that he brought to the soccer 
field. Despite the unimaginable hardships of war, Nicholas never lost 
his generous spirit. He persuaded his father to mail dozens of used 
soccer balls to his base because he could not stand to see the local 
children kicking

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tin cans. This act of kindness in the midst of cruelty and chaos 
clearly demonstrated the character of this exemplary young man.
  PFC Nicholas Madaras was a patriot in the best sense of the word. He 
and others like him have given their lives in defense of our Nation's 
principles, and for that, all of us in Connecticut and across America 
owe them a deep debt of gratitude.
  I salute Private Madaras for his tremendous service to our country, 
and wish to offer my deepest sympathies to his parents, William and 
Shalini, his sister Marie, his brother Christopher, and to everyone who 
knew and loved him.

                          ____________________