Political Quotes

“I come to the floor today to talk about CPT Samson Luke, 33 years old, who lived in Greenwood, AR. Captain Luke was one of those people who had many options in life. Fortunately for us, he made the decision to serve his country, and he did so with distinction. He was a field artillery officer who served on active duty in the Army from 2000 to 2007. Afterwards, he served in the Arkansas National Guard where he was a commander of the HHB 1-142nd field artillery. Here is a photo of him with his family. His family was very important to him. He had been to Iraq on two different deployments, after which he was awarded the Bronze Star. As I said, he elected to stay on with the Arkansas National Guard. He served with distinction there. He told his wife, who is pictured here, that he felt he was truly at his best when he was leading men. I want to talk about him for a moment because, quite frankly, the bean counters over at the Pentagon are trying to save a little money at his family's expense. So I want to talk about his passing away on January 10 of 2010--less than a year ago. It was a weekend where he was doing his required training weekend. He was authorized, because he lived so close to the post, to spend Saturday night with his wife and his four young children at his home instead of staying on the post. In fact, he wasn't authorized to stay on the post because he was so close to home. He had to be off post.…”