Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague and good friend and classmate Mrs. Maloney from New York, and I thank our colleague from Texas for his very kind and generous remarks about the designation of the United States post office in Mountain View, California, in my district, as the Lieutenant Kenneth M. Ballard Memorial Post Office. A Mountain View native, Ken Ballard joined the Army at the age of 18. He comes from a distinguished family that have given a long line of military service to our country. He attended basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky. He went on to bravely serve our Nation in Germany, Bosnia, Macedonia, and Iraq. On April 3, 2004, Lieutenant Ballard's battalion, the 2nd Battalion, 37th Regiment, 1st Armored Division turned in their weapons and began preparing to return home. The very next day, violence broke out in Baghdad, and shortly thereafter, Lieutenant Ballard's tour was unexpectedly extended for an additional 120 days. Less than 2 months later, on May 20, 2004, after 9 years of service, Lieutenant Ballard was killed in Najaf, Iraq, by accidental discharge of the M-240 weapon on his vehicle. He was a recipient of the Purple Heart and three Bronze Stars, two with valor device. Lieutenant Ballard was a true American hero, and his ultimate sacrifice deserves our formal recognition of gratitude, which is what we are doing here today.…”