Honoring Our Armed Forces

Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, I appreciate the opportunity to address the Senate today with my colleague from Texas and others who have joined us and will in the future to take the time set aside by our leadership to talk about our troops and to give them the thanks of a grateful Nation as they fight in Iraq to protect our freedom.

Today I want to begin by sharing another vignette, this one is from the Army Times written by Robert Hodierne and Jane McHugh. It is about a heroic act that occurred in Iraq during some of the early days of the fighting. This is a picture with the wrong name on it. I will explain. When it was first reported, it said "Joseph DeWitt." But after further evaluation—this picture made it on the front page of a number of newspapers around the country, and people started checking into it.

It was actually Joseph P. Dwyer, age 26, who is still in the field in Iraq. A few days ago, when this report I will discuss was written, he was still 80 miles outside of Baghdad with his division, the 3rd Infantry. What we see is obvious. It is one of our soldiers carrying a young Iraqi boy to safety. But there is a story behind this picture that illustrates the bravery and commitment of our troops in Iraq, not just to cause a regime change and to overthrow Saddam Hussein and restore peace and freedom in Iraq and peace and freedom in the world, but also to do so in a way that causes the least amount of collateral damage.

I will stop before I go into this vignette to make a point. There are many nations in the world that, when war begins, would not pay attention to the collateral damage, the injuries of innocent civilians. Saddam Hussein, as we know, has killed tens of thousands of innocent people just for the accomplishment of an objective of war.

But our Nation, as we conduct this battle, is conducting it in a way that literally puts our men and women in the military at greater risk because of the decision to try to reduce the risk presented by the war to those who are innocent. I think it is important for us to note that our men and women in the armed services are incurring this greater risk because of our commitment and theirs to make sure that we do not injure one unnecessary person as we conduct this war.

You can see here a young grimy soldier in full battle gear. You can see the level of concern on his face as he carries this wounded young Iraqi boy to safety. What is the story behind this picture? As I have indicated, Joseph Dwyer is 26, and he is still with the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq. Until just a few days ago, he didn't really have a clue how famous he was. His name was misidentified in the first prints of the picture. By the time he was identified, his picture was one that people around the world had seen. When he was told about it, his reaction was that he laughed out loud. For a few moments, he could not stop laughing. He said afterward that he was both amused and embarrassed at the notoriety he had achieved. "Really, I was just one of a group of guys. I wasn't standing out more than anyone else," he said during this telephone conversation during some rare down time.

Dwyer has lived for the past 6 years in Wagram, NC, where his parents moved after his father retired as a New York transit policeman. This young man's family has been in law enforcement. His father is a retired policeman. He grew up in Mt. Sinai on New York's Long Island. His three older brothers are New York City policemen. If you think about that and remember 9/11, he had three brothers who were New York City policemen when he found out the news about what was happening on 9/11. None of his brothers was lost on 9/11, but one of them lost a partner on 9/11. That is how close the casualties came to his personal family.

He said: "I mean everybody lost someone, a lot of good people." He said he was sure for a long time that he had lost someone too. He believed one of his brothers had probably been killed. He said: "I thought he was gone." But when he talked to his brother on the night of September 11 and learned he was safe, Dwyer said: "I knew I had to do something." So 2 days later he enlisted in the Army and became a medic. He said: "It was just what I could do at the time."

People from across America jumped in and did what they could after 9/11. This young man joined the Army to help protect and defend the United States interests and is now doing that in Iraq. On Tuesday morning, when the now-famous image of Dwyer was taken, his unit, the 3rd Squadron of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, had been ambushed repeatedly the night before as they worked their way along the north side of the Euphrates River. Just as the Sun was rising, they were ambushed again by Iraqi troops firing from tree lines on both sides of the road. The Americans fired back with everything they had and called in airstrikes to help them. In the middle of this firefight, an Iraqi family was caught in the crossfire. When the fighting stopped, the father of the family came running out screaming that his family needed help. Dwyer says: "It came over that there was a family that had some injuries. We went down there. It was kind of hectic at first. .    .    . We didn't know what was going on. Who was friendly and who wasn't."

Here is an example of how our troops are putting themselves in harm's way because of their interest in making sure that we reduce the casualties to innocent people.

"We didn't want to get too close to the village, knowing that there could be possible enemy there," he went on. "We saw him with the child. He came running out to where we had the hospital set up."

Then he and some other soldiers, guns at the ready, bolted from their cover to help. Dwyer reached the father and grabbed his son from him, cradling the young boy in a protective embrace as he raced back to safer ground. That is when Army Times photographer Warren Zinn snapped this picture.

The boy, who is about 4 years old, "grabbed right onto me, that was the weird thing," Dwyer said. "The kid was doing all right. I could feel him breathing real hard, and I was just carrying him and he didn't cry one bit and you know he was a cute little kid. He was scared, though, you could tell. You know, for the father to trust us to take his child over and know that we would take care of him, maybe it's just me being optimistic, but I think it was a good feeling knowing he trusted us to take his child. It was a little kid. I have little nieces and nephews back home. .    .    . It was just a kid, it wasn't an enemy. This is what I signed up to do, to help people."

That day was the first time Dwyer treated any wounded. The little boy had a broken left leg, but Dwyer says he is going to make a quick recovery. Though gratifying as the encounter may have been, it left him with lingering concerns. He wishes he could talk to the family.

"I wonder how they felt about us," he said. "I mean, if I was in their position and this was going on, I'd be mad at me, you know, for being here. I don't know. I wouldn't mind being able to talk to him, that's for sure."

Dwyer nevertheless is glad to be in Iraq. "I know that people are going to be better for it. The whole world will be. I hope being here is positive because we are a caring group of people out here. If they find out, that would be great. Maybe they'd stop shooting."

Mr. President, here we have one more specific example of an act of bravery, heroism, which is happening time and time again in Iraq. As we see the scenes on TV of the bombs exploding and the troops moving, we think about our troops being engaged in battle, but we don't think about the fact that, as they are engaged in battle, they are also doing everything they can to help those who are innocent, who didn't start or cause this war, to be protected from harm's way.

I conclude my remarks by again expressing on my behalf, and I believe on behalf of the entire Senate and the Congress, and, frankly, the United States people, our thanks to our men and women in the armed services for the service they are giving.
I spoke in the Chamber a few days ago about an Idahoan who has given the extreme sacrifice. He lost his life in this battle. We will have, unfortunately, more stories like that. As a nation, we give our thoughts and our prayers and our grateful thanks to the men and women in our Armed Forces who are putting their lives on the line for our freedom.

Mr. President, I yield the remainder of my time to the Senator from Texas.