[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12678]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1220
    MOURNING THE LOSS OF ARMY FIRST LIEUTENANT DIMITRI DEL CASTILLO

  (Mr. CULBERSON asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Speaker, the duty we perform today to cut and cap 
America's spending, to put us on track to a balanced budget, and to 
pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution are vitally 
important but pale in comparison to the sacrifices and duties of our 
Armed Forces, our men and women in uniform.
  It is with profound sadness today that I join with the family and 
friends and the neighbors of United States Army First Lieutenant 
Dimitri del Castillo in mourning his loss. On June 25, 2011, he was 
killed while fighting in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring 
Freedom.
  In 2004, it was my privilege to nominate Dimitri for an appointment 
as a cadet to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Upon 
his graduation, he was commissioned in the Infantry, where he sought 
out the Army's toughest challenges immediately. He graduated from the 
demanding Airborne and Ranger courses and later passed a series of 
rigorous skill and endurance tests to earn the Army's coveted Expert 
Infantryman Badge.
  Dimitri deployed with his unit to Afghanistan in April of 2011, and 
while conducting combat operations he was tragically killed when his 
unit came under fire by enemy forces. For his heroic actions that day, 
Dimitri was awarded posthumously the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple 
Heart.
  Though we mourn his loss, we are immensely proud of Dimitri's 
accomplishments and we are immensely proud of the men and women who 
fight for us every day to make it possible to savour the freedom left 
to us by our founders. May the Lord bless and keep Dimitri's soul, and 
may God help his family find comfort in the nobility and valor of his 
deeds.

                          ____________________