[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5090]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING SERGEANT DENNIS WEICHEL

  (Mr. CICILLINE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of 
Sergeant Dennis Weichel, Jr., of the Rhode Island National Guard. Last 
month, while serving our country in Afghanistan, Sergeant Weichel saved 
a young Afghan child who had crawled underneath a moving armored 
vehicle in order to collect a brass shell casing. Responding quickly, 
Sergeant Weichel moved the child to safety, even though doing so placed 
him in the path of the same armored vehicle and took his life. Sergeant 
Weichel is an American hero who gave his life to protect a child he did 
not even know.
  Rhode Islanders are often reminded that we come from the smallest 
State in the Union, but today, Sergeant Dennis Weichel's actions have 
touched our entire Nation and are an example of the sacrifices made 
every day by our brave men and women in uniform.
  My thoughts and prayers go out to his mother, Linda; his father 
Dennis, Sr.; his fiancee, Ashley; and his three children.

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