[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 10041]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING OUR ARMED FORCES


                      STAFF SERGEANT EDWIN RIVERA

  Mr. DODD. Madam President, today I have a heavy heart to mark the 
passing and commemorate the life of SSgt Edwin Rivera, a native of 
Waterford, CT, who lost his life in Afghanistan last week at the age of 
28.
  Staff Sergeant Rivera, the only son of middle-class Puerto Rican 
parents who came to Connecticut in the 1970s, graduated from Waterford 
High School in 2000. And they were proud of young Edwin, who served his 
first deployment in 2006, even as they missed his presence.
  ``The center of the family shifts back to my house when Edwin is 
gone,'' his mother said.
  He was gone for 15 months, not the promised 12. And when he came 
home, he was changed by what he had seen. But he soon became the 
lively, committed family man, seeing his two sons, Rolando and Lorenzo, 
off to school, working at the Millstone nuclear powerplant, starting a 
new life with his wife Yesenia.
  Last summer, however, he told his mother that he still thought about 
the sad faces of the children he had seen in Afghanistan, the children 
who couldn't enjoy the stable, safe life he was providing for his own 
family.
  ``When the U.S. soldiers drive by,'' he told her, ``the children will 
scramble like mad in the dust just to get thrown a simple pencil from 
us. They don't even have pencils. I was born for this, it's my duty, to 
protect those families over there.''
  So Edwin went back, leaving for Afghanistan again in early January 
with the 1st Battalion of the 102nd Infantry Regiment, a Connecticut 
National Guard unit based in New Haven. Like Edwin, many of those who 
went with him were not on their first deployment. But they fought with 
courage and commitment. And when Staff Sergeant Rivera made the 
ultimate sacrifice for his country, he did so in defense of his mates.
  Staff Sergeant Rivera will be missed. But his selflessness, his 
commitment to his family, and his love of country will not be 
forgotten; rather, they will remain as an inspiration to his two young 
sons and to all of us who honor his service.

                          ____________________