On the recordApril 29, 2008
I rise today to honor U.S. Army Sergeant David Stelmat of Littleton, NH. On March 22, 2008, Sergeant Stelmat was tragically taken from us, along with two fellow soldiers from the North Carolina Army National Guard's 1132 Military Police Company, when his humvee encountered an improvised explosive device in Bagdad, Iraq. At only 27 years old, SGT David Stelmat, or DJ as he was known to his friends and family, will always be remembered as an adventurous, fun-loving young man who enjoyed the outdoors. The attacks of September 11, 2001, were the worst our Nation has ever experienced. Terrorists hijacked commercial airplanes, turned them into weapons, and brutally steered them into the World Trade Center Towers in New York, the Pentagon only miles from here, and the last plane lost on a field in Pennsylvania as a result of the heroic stance of the passengers aboard. It has become part of New Hampshire lore that in the wake of this tragedy, when our Nation was looking to heal itself, DJ, a 1998 graduate of Profile High School, along with a friend, climbed to the top of the Old Man of the Mountain and placed an American flag in the iconic profile.
Said by
Judd Gregg
Source
govinfo.gov