Mark Kirk: “a few hours ago I received a phone call from Captain Clay Fearnow, my former commanding officer in the Navy during the…”

“a few hours ago I received a phone call from Captain Clay Fearnow, my former commanding officer in the Navy during the Kosovo conflict. Clay told me of a terrible loss we had suffered in the Navy family as part of the Pentagon disaster. Most of the Navy Command Center was hit, including the Chief of Naval Operations Intelligence plot offices. It is a point of intense personal loss for me and my family because of that information. My wife and I worked in that office. We know many people there. We want to offer our sympathy and support to the families of the victims in the Naval Intelligence Community that suffered this loss on Tuesday. Mr. Speaker, we can do something about this, and I want to offer one suggestion in the form of legislation that we will be offering later on today. In a previous life as a congressional staffer, I worked on legislation concerning the State Department Rewards Program offered for information leading to the arrest of individuals who lead terrorist attacks against Americans and American targets.”