Political Quotes

“I will not read all of it, but I wanted to read the description of his sacrifice and the reason he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, so rare for any soldier to be so awarded. Here is part of the official report. This is December 4, 2006. During the course of the patrol, an unidentified insurgent positioned on a rooftop nearby threw a fragmentation grenade into the Humvee. Without hesitation or regard for his own life, McGinnis threw his back over the grenade, pinning it between his body and the Humvee's radio mount. McGinnis absorbed all lethal fragments and the concussive effects of the grenade with his own body. McGinnis, who was a private first class at the time, was posthumously promoted to specialist. Specialist McGinnis's heroic actions and tragic death are detailed in the battlescape section of this website and in his Medal of Honor Citation. He was a young man from Knox, PA, 19 years old, when he gave, as Abraham Lincoln also said, 'The last full measure of devotion to his country.' And I have used that line a lot because it applies so well to those who have given their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan and other places around the world, but at no time--at no time--that I have used that line from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address has it applied better than it does in this instance, for Ross. A McGinnis, 19 years old, born June 14, 1987, in Meadville, PA, though he grew up in Knox, PA.”