Ted Poe: “it has been said that ``never in the history of the world has any soldier sacrificed more for the freedom and liberty of…”

“it has been said that ``never in the history of the world has any soldier sacrificed more for the freedom and liberty of total strangers than the American soldier,'' said by Zell Miller about the American fighting men. I rise today to honor a young American marine from my southeast Texas district, Marine Staff Sergeant Russell Slay, who valiantly served the Nation in Iraq and who died doing so. He was a member of the 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion of the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Russell Slay grew up in my hometown of Humble, Texas. As a student at Humble High School, he played football and was in the band. After he graduated from Humble High School, he started working, but quickly realized that he needed something more in his life. His high school friend Jason Tucker had joined the Marine Corps, and he had made the decision to join him and fight for his country. His father, Roy, a retired Houston police officer and a long-time friend of mine, said of his son, ``Russell wanted to be somewhere that would teach and inspire him.'' During his 10-year military career, he was trained to drive armored vehicles that carried combat troops from ships to beachheads during amphibious attacks. During his first tour of Iraq in 2002, Slay took part in overtaking Baghdad. He had been in charge of a section of four armored all-terrain vehicles. He left for his second mission on September 11, 2004.…”