Mr. Speaker, I have introduced H.R. 4631. The text is ``to authorize the adoption of a military working dog by the family of a deceased or seriously wounded member of the Armed Forces who was the…
Mr. Speaker, I have introduced H.R. 4631. The text is ``to authorize the adoption of a military working dog by the family of a deceased or seriously wounded member of the Armed Forces who was the handler of the dog.'' This act may be cited as the ``Corporal Dustin Lee Memorial Act.''
Mr. Speaker, 2 years ago, it was brought to my attention that a family in Mississippi, Rachel and Jerome Lee, their son, Dustin, a marine, was killed in Iraq for this Nation. Also with Dustin was his dog, Lex, who was wounded. In fact, the Marine Corps brought the dog, Lex, to Dustin's funeral.
Mr. and Mrs. Lee gave their son for this country, and all they asked of this Nation was to please let them have Lex, the dog that their son, Dustin, loved so much. Well, we all live here in Washington in a bureaucratic world, and there is some reason I guess for that, but the Marine Corps said to the family that Lex has 2 more years of service before he can be retired.
I heard about this story, and I called Mr. and Mrs. Lee in Mississippi. They told me, Congressman, we understand that this dog is very important to the cause of our Nation, but this dog meant so much to our son that that's all we would like to have. Well, I want to thank General Mike Regner, who I called and asked General Regner, is there any way we can expedite the retirement of Lex? And he said we will do our best to make this happen.
Well, these dogs that are trained work magnificently for this country. In fact, they give their lives many times to save a service person by seeking out these IEDs and other explosives. Well, it took about 3 weeks--that is not a whole lot of time, it really is not, but I think in the situation of these dogs, when the handler is killed for this country or seriously wounded, that we should be able to expedite this small gift to the family.
I will say to my colleagues, I am going to send a ``Dear Colleague'' around in the next few days that the Department of Defense has worked with us on. They support this legislation, so I hope that my colleagues will join me, and let's move this legislation through the House I hope expeditiously.
Mr. Speaker, this is a photograph taken by the family. When they got Lex home, they let Lex remember Dustin by having his clothes and his boots that had been returned from Iraq, and they let Lex remember the fragrance of their son. Then they took Lex to the cemetery--this is a rather large cemetery--and they said to Lex, Find Dustin, find Dustin. And the dog ran around the cemetery and then came up to the headstone. This is the headstone. It is a picture of their son Dustin with Lex. Dustin is kneeling and Lex is sitting there beside him. Lex came up to this headstone and laid down beside the headstone.
So with that, Mr. Speaker, I will ask my colleagues, please join us in H.R. 4639. This is the least we can do for the family or the wounded individual.
Mr. Speaker, as I always do, I ask God to please bless our men and women in uniform. I ask God to please bless the families of our men and women in uniform. I ask God, in His loving arms, to hold the families-- like the Lee family--who gave a child dying for freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq. And Mr. Speaker, I will ask three times from the bottom of my heart: God please, God please, God please continue to bless America.
