[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 6248-6249]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         HONORING THE COMBAT SERVICE OF CORPORAL COLBEY YAZZIE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. PAUL A. GOSAR

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 14, 2011

  Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor one of our country's 
wounded warriors.
  Corporal Colbey Yazzie, a resident of Kayenta, Arizona and a 2007 
graduate of Monument Valley High School, volunteered to serve our 
nation and joined the elite ranks of the United States Marine Corps 
just after high school graduation. We have spoken to Corporal Yazzie's 
father, Henry, who we know could not be more proud of his son. Corporal 
Yazzie is also a member of the Navajo Nation, a tribe that has provided 
our country with brave warriors year after year for decades. For this 
sacrifice, I stand here and pay our respects as a nation and I ask for 
a moment of prayer.
  Today I want to specifically honor Corporal Colbey Yazzie. Corporal 
Colbey Yazzie was deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 
Afghanistan. He was assigned to the Marine Corps Combat Engineers. 
Corporal Yazzie was seriously wounded while supporting combat 
operations while engaged in a dismounted marine force patrol in Helmand 
Province, Afghanistan. He detonated a push plate improvised explosive 
device while on this combat patrol, and the resulting explosion severed 
his right leg above the knee.
  Just shortly before Corporal Colbey Yazzie was injured, author Bing 
West travelled with Corporal Yazzie's unit, and described the high 
level of professionalism, determination and bravery these Marines 
demonstrated day in and day out. I truly wished everyone in America 
understood the sacrifice, bravery and diligence our Marines embody. The 
article is called ``With the Warriors: Patrol Base Fires, Sangin 
District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan'' and was published in the 
March 7th edition of the National Review. Let me excerpt some of what 
Mr. West wrote about Corporal Yazzie and his unit, again, shortly 
before Corporal Yazzie was injured:

       The view from this platoon outpost in southern Afghanistan 
     is unobstructed, both visually and strategically. On all 
     sides stretch flat, bare, winter farmlands dotted with walled 
     compounds. The strategy is aggressive patrolling to kill and 
     drive out the Taliban, who have acted as the rural government 
     here for 15 years. . . .
       The patrol base, named Fires because of the intensity of 
     the daily fighting, was at the northern edge of the Marine 
     advance. When I arrived in mid-January, Lt. Vic Garcia, the 
     seasoned platoon commander, handed me two tourniquets. ``If 
     someone goes down near you on patrol,'' he said, ``wrap him 
     real tight and watch where you step.'' Garcia explained that 
     the Taliban roam in small gangs among the farm compounds, sow 
     mines, and attack from the flanks. When we set out on a 
     combat patrol, the 15 Marines

[[Page 6249]]

     walked in single file across brown, furrowed farmlands 
     suggestive of New England in early spring. Lance Cpl. Colbey 
     Yazzie, a full-blooded Navajo Indian, swept a narrow path 
     with his metal detector, while his Irish-American partner, 
     Lance Cpl. Kyle Doyle, watched out for snipers.
       Near a footbridge across an irrigation canal, Yaz clenched 
     his fist to halt the platoon, then knelt down and scratched 
     at the dirt. He took out wire cutters, snipped a few wires, 
     and held up two small boards wrapped in tape. Glued to the 
     underside of each board was a sliver of metal. When a foot 
     pressed down on the boards, the metal plates came together, 
     completing an electrical circuit connecting a flashlight 
     battery to a plastic jug filled with explosives. Yaz attached 
     a small charge to the IED (improvised explosive device) and 
     blew it up, and the patrol continued.
       In 100 days of patrolling four kilometers north of the 
     Sangin district center, Kilo Company of the 3rd Battalion, 
     5th Marine Regiment had found 115 IEDs. Another 14 had 
     exploded. Of the 136 Marines in Kilo, nine had been killed 
     and 35 severely wounded. Of four platoon commanders, one had 
     been killed and another had lost a leg to a mine. . . .
       After discovering the first IED, we walked north at a 
     steady, careful pace. Not one farmer was out tilling the 
     lands sown with mines. Yaz again clenched his fist, knelt 
     down, disarmed and blew up an IED. The patrol continued for a 
     while, then halted suspiciously at the edge of a large field. 
     On the far side were two long compound walls, dotted with 
     ``murder holes''--small peepholes for the Taliban rifle 
     barrels.
       The Marines peered at the wall through the telescopic 
     sights on their rifles. Suddenly, the squad leader, Sgt. 
     Philip McCulloch, fired a single shot. The Marines' counter 
     is equally simple. One element peels off to flank the enemy, 
     while another keeps aimed fire on the enemy position. If the 
     Taliban remains too long in a fixed location, indirect fire 
     (fire without a line of sight to the target, as from 
     artillery) is called in. Every Marine has a telescopic rifle, 
     and most of the fleeting targets are about 400 meters 
     distant.
       Yaz was leading the patrol back by a different route across 
     a furrowed field when he stopped a third time. Again he 
     uncovered a pressure-plate IED. ``That's crazy,'' McCulloch 
     said. ``An IED in the middle of nowhere.'' That IED was sure 
     to blow the legs off a passing farmer--or a Marine. Yaz 
     pointed to three small rocks several feet away, a tipoff for 
     a passing Taliban gang that there was a mine in the vicinity.
       A few minutes later, we walked past a crumbled wall, 
     startling two dark brown coyotes. Again Yaz stopped, knelt. 
     and disarmed a pressure plate. Four mines in the path of one 
     patrol, and he had found them all.

  Bing West, ``With the Warriors'' (emphasis added). What Mr. West has 
described here is an amazing act of bravery and professionalism by 
Corporal Yazzie and his fellow Marines. In just one patrol, on one 
afternoon, Corporal Yazzie located and disarmed four IEDs. Four hidden 
bombs designed to kill or maim indiscriminately, whether it is a child, 
a farmer, or a Marine. By doing his job, Corporal Yazzie can be 
credited with saving lives and limbs that day, and likely on many other 
days.
  But Corporal Yazzie's service was not free. There is a high cost that 
has been paid, and continues to be paid. On March 26, 2011, in an 
effort to save lives, Corporal Yazzie detonated an IED and sacrificed 
his right leg.
  Corporal Yazzie, we honor your service. To the others in your unit, 
and the rest of the Marine Corps, please know, we honor your service 
and sacrifice as well. You are not forgotten. You are appreciated more 
than you know.

                          ____________________