Mark Kirk: “I have a privilege to represent a congressional district, including Great Lakes Naval Training Center where 90 percent…”

“I have a privilege to represent a congressional district, including Great Lakes Naval Training Center where 90 percent of the men and women in our fleet deployed were trained, and Ft. Sheridan, where key Army aviation and intelligence functions are administered. We think about the Americans abroad today. Specifically we think about the Americans at CFLIK at Camp Doha, at the 5th Fleet in Manama, Bahrain, at CENTCOM Forward in Qatar, at the ONW headquarters where I served at Incirlik, Turkey, at the OSW headquarters at Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia. We have a special thanks for the 174,000 reservists who have been called up, citizen soldiers, sailors and airmen, serving in Operation Noble Eagle to protect us here at home, Enduring freedom in Afghanistan and around the world, and of course for lack of a better term, Desert Storm II coming up. But as a Navy guy, I want to give a special note of thanks to the four acres of freedom, wherever America needs and those are our carrier battle groups.”