Indian Health Care Improvement Act Amendments of 2007

Floor Speech

INDIAN HEALTH CARE IMPROVEMENT ACT AMENDMENTS OF 2007 -- (Senate - January 23, 2008)

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Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about an issue which is on the minds of millions of Americans, but you would not know about it from listening to the news.

Most of the news has been focused, appropriately so I think, on the economy and the challenges we face. We are all going to be focusing on that issue and we are going to be talking a lot about it and taking action on it.

But at the same time, the war in Iraq remains an urgent issue for our country but especially for the families who are living through this, the small percentage of American families who have someone serving in Iraq, a loved one, a relative, and also, of course, the troops themselves who are serving.

So Iraq, the war in Iraq, remains an urgent issue, an issue that deserves our attention and our continued focus. Today I do not want to talk about the policy. We are going to have months and months to talk about it. I have strong feelings about it, but today I rise for a very simple but I think important reason and that is to salute the troops from the State of Pennsylvania who have recently died in the war.

In July, I came to the floor to talk about the then 169 Pennsylvania natives, in some cases residents, who had died in Iraq. Today, unfortunately, I have to add nine more since July. We all know a lot of the lyrics of the great singer and songwriter, Bruce Springsteen. I quoted them last summer when I talked about the lyrics from his song ``Missing,'' where he talked about, in the context of 9/11, those who had perished and the effect on a family.

His lyrics say, in part, he talks about waiting for that person to come home, the person who would have lost their life at the tragedy of 9/11. He says: Your house is waiting. Then he repeats it. He says: Your house is waiting for you to walk in, but you are missing.

He says: You are missing when I turn out the lights, you are missing when I close my eyes, you are missing when I see the sunrise.

And he goes on from there. I think that song and those lyrics have an awful lot of meaning for those who have lost a loved one in Iraq. Even if they did not, the time spent away in Iraq for a loved one is difficult enough but especially for a family with a member of their family who died in Iraq. They are missing, and for a lot of those families, will be missing for the rest of that family's life.

It is important to remember and remind ourselves these troops volunteered for service. They were not drafted. They knew their task would be difficult. They knew they would be in danger but they made that commitment.

In the end, they made the ultimate sacrifice. To those families across Pennsylvania, in communities such as Altoona and Falls Creek and State College and Wexford and on and on and on, the war in Iraq is not some obscure abstract policy being debated in Washington. For them, the war is something very real.

As I said before, these fighting men and women in Iraq were born into families, not divisions and brigades. These families and these communities have lost sons and daughters, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, classmates, friends, all those relationships and all those families and communities.

We know this war has gone on longer than World War II.

We know the numbers, more than 3,900 dead. In Pennsylvania, it is at 178. Nationally, the wounded number is about 28,000. In many cases, those who have been wounded are grievously, irreparably, permanently wounded.

We will not forget their sacrifice. But let me read the names of the recently lost from Pennsylvania, the nine members we have to add to our list. I will read their names and their hometowns.

First, Michael A. Hook from Altoona, Pennsylvania; Zachary Clouser, from Dover; Michael J. Tully, Falls Creek; David A. Wieger, from North Huntingdon; Adam J. Chitjian, from the city of Philadelphia; also from the city of Philadelphia, Camy Florexil; from Pittsburgh, Ryan D. Maseth; David A. Cooper, Jr., from State College, PA; Eric M. Foster, Wexford, PA.

So after reading these nine names, we have now read, between July and this date, all those from the State of Pennsylvania who have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war.

I know we are short on time today, and we could read biographical sketches of all those 178 soldiers. But let me read a couple of notes about a few of them before I conclude.

By way of example, one of the names is Adam J. Chitjian from Philadelphia. There is a section called Somerton in the city of Philadelphia. He was on his second tour of duty in Iraq, 39 years old. He joined the Army and his brother was quoted as saying: He wanted to act rather than just talk. That is why he joined the Army.

He leaves behind a father and sister. When he visited Texas, after being in Pennsylvania and serving our country all those years, when Adam was in Texas, he met Shirley, who would later become his wife. So for that family, we are thinking of Adam and his family. He died on October 24, 2007.

Then we go backward in time to 2003 in November, Nicholas A. Tomko from Pittsburgh, and a couple highlights about his life. He was 24 years old, from just outside Pittsburgh. The town is called New Kensington. His father's name is Jack Tomko. He is quoted, in part, as saying about his son that: He was a great kid, brave as hell. And he goes on from there talking about his son.

Now this is a young man who left behind a fiance. And he was working as an armored car driver near Pittsburgh. He joined the Reserves 3 years ago hoping to get a head start in a career in law enforcement.

I wish we could say Nicholas A. Tomko would have that opportunity to serve in law enforcement, but this war took him from us.

His fiance said, and I am quoting in part here: I am going to make sure people know about his service--that he went over there to fight for his country and that he went over to serve. So we remember him.

Two more before I conclude. SSG Jeremy R. Horton from Erie, PA, died on May 21, 2004. His tour was extended. He was a 24-year-old Pennsylvanian. His tour was extended. He joined the Army right out of high school, hoping to get money for college. This is what his uncle said about him: He certainly loved his family, and he loved his country, and he loved the military. It was what he wanted to do. We need more like him.

No one could have said it better than that. We do need more people like him, like Jeremy. He is survived by his wife Christie, whom he married shortly after joining the Army.

I will do one more because I know we are short on time. SSG Ryan S. Ostrom, from Liberty, PA. He was at one point in his life a baseball coach. One of his players quoted the story about his life: He was a good leader and a good person to look up to. And he had that special smile we used to see in the locker room.

That is what they said about him as a coach. This man, Mr. Ostrom, was 25 years old when he died. Here is what another member of the military said, SSG Craig Stevens said about Ryan: He was a soldier you could give a task to and know it would get done. You could just look at him and know he was a leader.

Ryan would have started his senior year at Mansfield University this fall, meaning then the fall of 2005. He is survived by his father Scott and his mother Donna.

I will add one more. We have a minute. Our last biographical sketch is LCpl Nicholas B. Morrison, from Carlisle, PA. He died August 13, 2004. He was 23 years old.

He joined the Marine Corps 16 months ago and planned to become a state trooper in the State of Pennsylvania. He was a 2000 graduate of Big Spring High School, where he was a linebacker on the football team.

I hope we can all remember his family as well today.

Here is what one of his friends said: He was the glue. When he would come home, we would all make an effort to go out. He would make us laugh about stories from when we were growing up.

And on and on and on, stories such as that from so many families and so many communities across our Commonwealth and indeed our country.

I conclude with this thought: There are a lot of great lines in ``America the Beautiful.'' We could spend a lot of time talking about each one of them. One of those lines, when we talk about ``America the Beautiful,'' says: ``Oh beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years.''

That is what a lot of these soldiers did. They not only volunteered for service knowing they could lose their lives, knowing they had to make a full commitment of their life and their time and their family's time, but they had dreams, dreams of serving their country and hopefully dreams to go beyond that.

But they were patriots and they had dreams and it is those dreams we remember and celebrate today. It is those dreams that go well beyond the years we see before us.

So we remember these troops today and as always we ask God's blessings on their lives, those who gave, as Abraham Lincoln said, the last full measure of devotion to their country.

We remember them today and their families. May God bless them.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that newspaper accounts about these soldiers be printed in the Record.

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