Tina Smith: “today I rise to honor a courageous Oregonian who rushed to save the life of a wounded Taliban fighter. Sergeant Dan…”

“today I rise to honor a courageous Oregonian who rushed to save the life of a wounded Taliban fighter. Sergeant Dan Trackwell, a native of Klamath Falls, OR, and a member of the Combined Anti-Armor Team, is currently serving in Afghanistan helping to secure that country's future. On June 13, 2004, Marines with Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 6th Marines and Afghan Militia Forces engaged three enemy soldiers on a mountain side. The guerillas were tracking and reporting on the Battalion Landing Team's activities when coalition forces opened fire and wounded at least one of them. The Marines used a high-powered optical sight to observe the enemy fighters and to confirm that one was indeed wounded. As the other Taliban fighters escaped into the mountains the wounded man was left for dead. Sergeant Dan Trackwell was one of the four Marines who ventured up the mountain to find the enemy. They located him hiding behind a rock. He and Corporal Jesse Clingan, of Unitown, Pennsylvania, determined that the fighter had lost a lot of blood and appeared to be in severe pain. Corporal Daniel Dimaso, of Junction, NY, stripped off his own t-shirt and made a tourniquet to control the bleeding from the gunshot wound on the enemy fighter's lower left leg, while Pvt. 1st Class Daniel Fondonella, of Mt. Vernon, NY, provided security. Two hours earlier these men were hunting him down and now they were hurrying to save his life.”