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NEW YORK - Congressman Charles Rangel released the following statement about the recent death of Army Sergeant Jose E. Ulloa. Ulloa, who was from the Washington Heights section of Northern Manhattan, was killed Friday, August 8, 2008 by a roadside bomb in Sadr City, Iraq.
"My heart goes out to the family of 23-year old Army Sgt. Jose E. Ulloa including his wife Melanie and their six-month old son who are based abroad in Germany, those members that live in my congressional district, his sister Stephanie Marmol and his uncle Rafael Ulloa and his father and sisters who still reside in the Dominican Republic.
No words that I can provide can bring their 'Ricky' back. Yet what I do hope is that that they can draw strength from the fact that he was well-respected and admired. He died serving his country, helping to secure abroad the kind of freedom and liberties that so many of us take for granted here in this country.
Sgt. Ulloa is just one of thousands that wake up each morning on the frontlines in Iraq and Afghanistan, saluting the flag with pride, but not knowing whether they will get to see another sunrise. They serve not knowing whether their next trip home is will be of their own volition, in medical transport unit or even worse yet, in a body bag. They lay their lives on the line daily for a multitude of reasons for an immoral war that has gone on far too long. A war that has drawn away billions from important priorities at home. A war that has seen way too many families, and this nation, robbed of the young ones that they love.
The best thing that we can do to honor those men and women who have sacrificed so much is to ensure that they are back home as soon as possible. We owe it to them to use the freedom and liberties that their spilled blood helped provide to build a safer and more democratic world.
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