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Washington, DC - Congressman Gene Green (D-TX) gave the following statement on the floor of the House of Representatives in honor of one of his constituents, Staff Sgt. Alberto V. Sanchez, Jr.
Staff Sgt. Sanchez passed away from injuries he received from the detonation of an improvised explosive device near the vehicle he was riding in during his tour in Iraq. The following statement was offered.
“Madam Speaker: I lost a constituent this last week in Iraq. Staff Sergeant Alberto V. Sanchez, Jr., had planned to celebrate his fifth wedding anniversary next month while on leave from Iraq. “It takes a piece of my heart,” his mother, Olga Sanchez said in Houston through tears. “Nothing we can say or do will ever bring him back.”
Sanchez, 33, a Milby High School graduate, died Saturday from wounds he suffered when an
improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle in Balad, about 50 miles north of Baghdad.
Sanchez was assigned to the Army’s 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiments, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry out of Fort Carson. Alberto Sanchez chose the Army so he could earn money for college tuition, but the military became his career. He chose to be in the Army, and his mother, Olga Sanchez, said he always said, “This is just a job. I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do.”
His parents, Alberto, Sr., and Olga Sanchez, moved to Houston from Reynosa, Mexico, when their son was an infant. The family is in disbelief, Mrs. Sanchez and the other adult children said. “He never felt worried,” his mother said. “If he felt worried, he never showed it. Like I said, all the pictures we have of him, he always had a big smile.”
Madam Speaker, I ask for a moment of silence to celebrate this American hero, Alberto Sanchez, Jr.”
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