[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 17010]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING OUR ARMED FORCES


                  Private First Class Joshua Modgling

                   Sergeant First Class William Zapfe

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, a few weeks ago, on Memorial Day, I spent a 
good part of the day in Boulder City, NV, where we have a veterans 
cemetery. It is new but growing fast. There are almost 25,000 graves in 
that cemetery which started less than 15 years ago.
  On that day, I joined veterans, family, and friends to pay thanks to 
the Nevadans who have lost their lives in the Iraq and Afghanistan 
wars.
  On that occasion, I shared the words of President Lincoln when our 
country was torn apart by the Civil War. Lincoln said:

       My dream is of a place and a time where America will once 
     again be seen as the last best hope of Earth.

  With the war raging in Iraq, with the whole area destabilized, his 
words ring loudly and clearly. My dream, as Lincoln's, is of a place 
and time where America will once again be seen as the last, best hope 
on Earth.
  The day before yesterday, PFC Joshua Modgling, of Henderson, NV, lost 
his life in pursuit of that dream. He was 22 years old. Joshua and Army 
SFC William Zapfe, from Kentucky, both died of wounds from a roadside 
bomb. They were 2 of the 15 killed within 36 hours, the day before 
yesterday, in that bloody civil war raging in Iraq.
  There is not much that can be said, other than our hearts are with 
the families of Joshua and William and all those who knew them. I speak 
for my colleagues and all Americans in praying that every brave man and 
woman serving overseas will come home safe and come home soon.

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