Thomas Daschle: “I will never forget my colleague sharing with me a postcard his son sent while he was in Iraq. It was on the back of an…”

“I will never forget my colleague sharing with me a postcard his son sent while he was in Iraq. It was on the back of an MRE, one of these meals the military eats every day. He had carved it out, writing on the back, put the address on the front, and sent it to his father and mother to report that he was well, to report that he believed in what he was doing. It has to be an emotional moment to receive that from your son. He invoked that emotion again today in speaking for all families who have members of the military in Iraq; that it is wrong to minimize these losses; that it is wrong to, in some way, depersonalize the extraordinary impact it has when one of these sons or daughters is lost. Hans Gukeisen was one of those who did lose his life. He was from Lead, SD. He was a helicopter pilot. He lost his life rescuing an Iraqi child. He is now buried in the Black Hills National Cemetery.”