Jerry Lewis: “when Melissa Rose Barnes was killed in the terrible attack on the Pentagon September 11, a mother in my district lost a…”

“when Melissa Rose Barnes was killed in the terrible attack on the Pentagon September 11, a mother in my district lost a daughter who put her career on hold for a year to care for an ailing sister. A family in my district lost the woman who could light up a room with her smile. And we all lost one of the young people who have devoted their lives to defend our Nation. Yeoman Third Class Melissa Rose Barnes was at her post in the Naval Command Center on the morning of September 11, no doubt making those around her smile with her optimism and sunny California spirit. Navy friends say the office was always a happier place with Melissa on duty. Melissa joined the Navy in 1992 after she graduated from Redlands High School. She served as a medical aide at Navy hospitals in Maryland and Virginia until 1998, when she took off time to care for her sister, Jennifer Mennie. For a year she watched over Jennifer until she died from lupus. Her mother, Linda Sheppard, remembers Melissa putting on a disco outfit and dancing around the room to make her sister smile. She came back to the Navy in 1999 and went to communications school. When she completed the course, she was assigned to the Pentagon. There she served her Nation in the command center, helping maintaining contact with our naval forces around the world. She was just 27 years old and a month away from an exciting new assignment on the U.S.S.…”