[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5115-5116]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING OUR ARMED FORCES


                     Lance Corporal Deshon E. Otey

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, like every one of my colleagues, I 
stand in awe of the brave men and women who have volunteered to take up 
arms and defend our country. Some are called to make the ultimate 
sacrifice. And so today I ask the Senate to pause in loving memory of 
LCpl DeShon E. Otey of Radcliff, KY. He was 24 years old.
  Lance Corporal Otey, a marine, died on June 21, 2004, while serving 
with an elite sniper team sent on a crucial mission in Ramadi, Iraq. 
Otey and three other marines entered the town to target the dangerous 
terrorists who had turned it into one of the most hostile in the 
country.
  To this day we can not be sure how tragedy struck Otey on this final 
mission. After headquarters could not make contact with his team, other 
marines were sent to find out what happened.
  Lance Corporal Otey was found killed, shot in the torso. The other 
three soldiers had met the same fate, and their weapons had been taken 
by the enemy.
  Just 3 months before his death, Lance Corporal Otey had survived a 
particularly brutal attack by the terrorists--again, in Ramadi, the 
site of many difficult battles. Then, Otey was the sole survivor out of 
all the men in his humvee.
  For his actions as a marine, Lance Corporal Otey earned numerous 
medals and awards, including the Purple Heart and the Combat Action 
Ribbon.
  Mr. President, though we mourn the loss of this hero's life, we would 
not mourn how he lived it. Lance Corporal Otey's mother Robin Mays 
tells us he wanted to join the Marines for about as long as she could 
remember. ``All he ever dreamed about was being a marine,'' she says. 
``He was the consummate marine--reserved, soft-spoken, would only speak 
when spoken to. He lived for the Marines.''
  As a student at North Hardin High School, in Hardin County, KY, 
DeShon was an amateur boxer who had several bouts in nearby Louisville, 
KY. He was also a lineman for the North Hardin High football team.
  But even as a high-school student, DeShon was preparing for the 
rigorous life of a marine. He tested for both the Marine Corps and the 
Air Force, earning high scores. He worked with a Marine recruiter, and 
sometimes the two would go off to participate in war games.
  DeShon proved to have great prowess with a weapon. He was eventually 
selected to be a sniper, a highly respected position that comes with a 
lot of responsibility and a lot of training. He went on to earn the 
Rifle Marksman Badge and the Pistol Marksman Badge.
  Of course, DeShon had other interests as well. His mother remembers 
that when he was little, he loved to watch television cooking shows. 
One night after coming home from work, Mrs. Mays told DeShon and his 
little brothers Ronald and Domenique that she would cook dinner for 
them.
  But after seeing how easy it looked on TV, little DeShon told his mom 
that he would cook for the family instead. ``Let DeShon cook!'' cried 
Ronald and Domenique in agreement. ``Sometimes he'd create his own 
little dinner,'' says Ronald, who says DeShon was a good cook.
  DeShon joined the Marines shortly after high school graduation. He 
underwent boot camp in Guam, and during a 2-week-long wilderness 
survival course had to eat crabs, snakes and snails. He told his 
mother, ``The snails were the nastiest.''
  DeShon's passion to excel as a marine was clear to others. ``He was 
dedicated,'' says Ronald. ``He loved what he did. He wouldn't change 
it.'' Eventually, DeShon would recruit three of his friends and Ronald 
to join the Marines.

[[Page 5116]]

  ``He's the reason we signed up,'' confirms Ronald. ``He talked about 
it all the time. He would call a lot, let us know how it was.''
  Ronald looked up to his brother DeShon, who was four years older, and 
Ronald also played football at North Hardin High School. After 
enlisting, Ronald entered the school of infantry. DeShon would call his 
little brother often to encourage him and give him advice.
  By that point, DeShon was calling from Ramadi, Iraq, site of some of 
the toughest fighting against the terrorists. Lieutenant Colonel Paul 
Kennedy, his battalion commander, has said that ``within the blink of 
an eye, the situation [in Ramadi] went from relatively calm to a raging 
storm.''
  Lance Corporal Otey joined the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 
made up of tough, battle-hardened warriors. Their motto is ``Second to 
None,'' and the battalion patch they wear on their shoulders proudly 
declares them to be ``The Magnificent Bastards.''
  Lance Corporal Otey was a star in this elite unit. And he became well 
known as a survivor of one of the most brutal battles the 2nd 
Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment would ever see.
  On the morning of April 6, 2004, terrorists walked through Ramadi's 
marketplace, telling shopkeepers to close their stores and warning 
them, ``Today, we are going to kill Americans.'' That day they ambushed 
marines in four separate, but coordinated, attacks.
  Lance Corporal Otey was part of a squadron sent in to support another 
group of marines that was under attack. He and seven other marines 
entered the combat zone in a green humvee.
  Suddenly terrorist snipers on the rooftops opened fire. Bullets 
pierced the humvee, killing driver LCpl Kyle Crowley and sending the 
vehicle tumbling onto its side.
  ``I remember when we got to our objective I started to hear `tink, 
tink, tink,''' Lance Corporal Otey later told the Marine Corps News. 
``I was like, `Man, we're being shot at. Get out of the vehicle.' ''
  Lance Corporal Otey leapt out and took cover behind a wall, calling 
out to his fellow marines to do the same. Bullets whizzed by him--one 
even went through his pants leg--but none hit him. Amazingly, a hand 
grenade thrown at his feet did not go off.
  Lance Corporal Otey returned fire and eventually more reinforcements 
came and successfully squelched the terrorists' attack. Otey was the 
only survivor of all the men who had been in his humvee.
  In all, 16 marines were killed in the battle, and 25 wounded. But 
marines seized several hundred weapons systems from the enemy and 
killed over 250 anti-American fighters.
  Lance Corporal Otey called his mother later to tell her about the 
epic battle and that he was ok. During their conversation, she could 
hear several people congratulating her son for a job well done.
  One of the screenwriters of the Mel Gibson film ``We Were Soldiers'' 
even flew to Iraq to hear Lance Corporal Otey's story, telling him it 
might be used for a movie.
  Still, this was little consolation for the loss of his Marine 
brothers. ``I talk with some of the other guys in the platoon about 
what happened, but it still hurts,'' Lance Corporal Otey told a 
newspaper afterwards.
  Using the Marine term for a sleeping bunk, he continued, ``Every time 
I walk into our living space I see the empty racks. Those were guys I 
used to talk to about my problems. Now I don't hear their voices 
anymore.''
  Tragically, Lance Corporal Otey's rack would go empty less than 3 
months later.
  Lance Corporal Otey was buried with full military rites in Cave Hill 
Cemetery in Louisville. Robin Mays points out that DeShon lies next to 
a World War II veteran and a Korean War veteran, and 10 graves away 
from his grandmother, Mrs. Mays's mother.
  Nothing can turn this sad story into a happy one for Lance Corporal 
Otey's family. But there is one more chapter to tell. Two years after 
Lance Corporal Otey's death, marines in Fallujah killed two terrorists, 
a sniper and a spotter, who were preparing to shoot at marines. The 
sniper was using an M-40-A-1 rifle that had been taken from Lance 
Corporal Otey's team that fateful day in June 2004.
  The marines returned the rifle to Lance Corporal Otey's battalion, 
and Lieutenant Colonel Kennedy hopes to make it a memorial to Lance 
Corporal Otey and all the members of his battalion who were killed in 
Iraq. And he believes the chances are strong that the terrorists found 
with this weapon were among the ones who killed Lance Corporal Otey.
  Our prayers go out to Mrs. Robin Mays for the loss of her son, and we 
thank her for sharing her memories of DeShon with us. DeShon's 
stepfather, Larry Mays; his brothers, Ronald and Domenique; his 
stepsisters, Mykeba Woods and Shauna Mays; his aunts, Terri Able and 
Cynthia Williams; his uncles, Ronald Jeffries and Dwayne Able; his 
grandmother, Betty Williams; and his step-grandmother Gracie Mays are 
in our thoughts today as well.
  DeShon's brother Ronald is now a lance corporal in the Marines, 
currently stationed in North Carolina. He has a son who's just 19 
months old, and born a year to the day after Lance Corporal Otey was 
buried on July 3, 2004, a day the city of Radcliff dedicated to him. 
Ronald named his son DeShon after the uncle he will never meet.
  No one could ever repay Lance Corporal Otey's family for their loss. 
But we can honor them today by giving his sacrifice the reverence and 
respect it deserves. And we can promise that his country will never 
forget his service.
  But I suspect that the greatest tribute to DeShon will be the little 
boy who will grow up bearing his name. Let's not let that child ever 
doubt that his uncle was a hero.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island is recognized.

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