[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 22267]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        TRIBUTE TO AIR FORCE SENIOR AIRMAN MARK ANDREW FORESTER

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                        HON. ROBERT B. ADERHOLT

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 15, 2010

  Mr. ADERHOLT. Madam Speaker, one of the most somber and humbling 
duties of our jobs is when we attend the funerals of our fallen 
soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. On October 7, 2010, I attended 
such a funeral for a fallen airman who not only was my constituent, but 
was a family I had grown up with.
  I would like to pay tribute to this American Patriot from my hometown 
of Haleyville, Alabama, who was killed in action on September 29, 2010, 
in the Uruzgan Province of Afghanistan.
  Air Force Senior Airman Mark Andrew Forester paid the ultimate 
sacrifice to defend our great nation. Mark was assigned to the 21st 
Special Tactics Squadron at Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina. He 
served as an Air Force Combat Controller and was embedded with a 
Special Forces Unit in Afghanistan.
  When I think of a young man like Mark, I think of words like; honor 
and bravery. ``Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down 
his life for his friends.''--John 15:13. Mark died while protecting his 
friends and fellow service members.
  In the fall of 1864, President Abraham Lincoln, wrote the following 
message to the mother of a fallen soldier. ``I pray that our Heavenly 
Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement and leave you only 
the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that 
must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of 
freedom.'' President Lincoln's words ring more powerful today than ever 
before.
  Mark earned numerous awards during his service including a Bronze 
Star with Valor and a Purple Heart.
  It is an honor to be able to say that I was associated with Mark and 
his family over the years. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with 
Mark's family and all those who knew and loved him.

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