[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 6351]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING OUR ARMED FORCES


                    Lance Corporal Thomas P. Echols

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today because a brave man from 
Kentucky has fallen in the far-away country of Iraq. LCpl Thomas P. 
Echols was tragically killed on December 4, 2006, during combat 
operations in the city of Ramadi. The Shepherdsville, KY, native was 20 
years old.
  Lance Corporal Echols was serving his second deployment in Iraq. For 
his valor as a U.S. Marine, he received several medals, awards, and 
decorations, including the National Defense Service Medal, the Navy and 
Marine Corps Commendation Medal, and the Purple Heart.
  Raised in Shepherdsville, in Bullitt County, Tom was actually born in 
Mount Clemens, MI, and as a result Tom brought with him to Kentucky a 
fast and true love for his University of Michigan Wolverines. His 
grandfather, Don Wight, still recalls how his grandson once saved up 
money for weeks to buy tickets to a University of Michigan football 
game.
  ``I'm an MSU grad, he's a dyed-in-the-wool University of Michigan 
fan. Anything he could find that was U of M memorabilia, he had it,'' 
says Don. ``He was just a good, fun-loving young man.'' Despite the 
longstanding rivalry between the University of Michigan and Michigan 
State, Tom and his grandfather went to that Wolverines football game 
together.
  While Tom's eyes looked north to his beloved Wolverines, his feet 
were firmly planted in Kentucky. He attended Cedar Grove Elementary 
School, Bernheim Middle School, and Bullitt Central High School, all in 
Shepherdsville. He graduated from Riverview High School in 
Shepherdsville in 2004.
  Growing up, Tom belonged to his school's football and track teams. He 
played video games and paintball. And in high school he participated in 
Junior ROTC and the drill team, perhaps preparing himself for the 
military life he hoped would lie ahead.
  Tom chose to pursue service in uniform by the time high school 
graduation rolled around. His father, Kurt Echols, remembers his son 
thinking of a career in the Armed Forces as early as middle school. 
Perhaps Tom drew inspiration from his father, a veteran himself.
  Tom ``was a good kid, loved sports, a big Michigan fan,'' Kurt says 
of his son, and remembers him as someone who always enjoyed a good 
joke.
  In the fall of 2004, Tom enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was a 
member of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division 
from Camp Lejeune, NC, and during his deployment to Iraq, his regiment 
fell under the command of the First Marine Expeditionary Force, 
Forward.
  Tom's longtime friend Tim Zamboroski was sorry to see the childhood 
buddy he had grown up with whisked away to the other side of the world. 
As kids, Tom and Tim used to play baseball together in the backyard. As 
men, they would trade e-mails back and forth from America to Iraq.
  ``I think he was pretty happy with serving the country,'' Tim says. 
``I'm going to miss him.'' When he heard Tom had been killed, Tim says 
he felt as if he had lost a brother.
  Lance Corporal Echols drove humvees during his first tour in Iraq, 
and by his second tour had become an infantryman.
  While serving in the Marine Corps, he also became a husband, after 
asking Allyson Echols, whom he met in high school, to marry him.
  Tom and Allyson married during the week of Thanksgiving in 2005. 
Allyson now raises the couple's young daughter, Julia, who sadly never 
got to meet her father.
  Tom was buried at the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in Louisville, 
KY, with full military honors. A large crowd of people came to pay 
their final respects. Sheriffs from both Bullitt County and neighboring 
Jefferson County were there, and Tom's father Kurt remembers with pride 
that members of a local fire department erected a large American flag 
in honor of his son.
  Our prayers are with the family of Lance Corporal Echols today as God 
comforts them for their tragic loss. We are thinking of his wife 
Allyson; his daughter Julia; his parents Kurt and Rose; his sister 
Rebecca; his brother Alexander; his grandparents Jerry and Sharon 
Echols and Donald and Mary Wight; and many other beloved family members 
and friends.
  This U.S. Senate expresses its deepest gratitude for LCpl Thomas P. 
Echols's life of service. And we express our deepest gratitude for the 
Echols family, for nurturing this man, patriot, and marine who answered 
the call in his country's time of need.

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