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HR0665 |
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LRB093 14237 KEF 47203 r |
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of |
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| Representatives were saddened
to learn of the death of 1st Lt. |
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| Brian Slavenas of Genoa who was killed when
his helicopter was |
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| shot down in Iraq on November 2, 2003; and
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| WHEREAS, Lt. Slavenas was born in DeKalb, about 60 miles |
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| west of Chicago, but
moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana as a child; |
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| he later moved back to Illinois and
attended DeKalb High |
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| School, where he played the drums and threw the discus;
and
tf
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| WHEREAS, After high school, he became a paratrooper with |
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| the United States
Army and then joined the same unit of the |
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| National Guard that his father was in
for 17 years;
he later |
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| went to officer school and decided to become a
helicopter |
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| pilot;
and
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| WHEREAS, Lt. Slavenas had just graduated from the |
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| University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign with an engineering |
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| degree and was looking forward to starting
a career before he |
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| was deployed in April 2003; and
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| WHEREAS, Lt. Slavenas came from a family with a history of |
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| military service;
his father was a paratrooper, one of his |
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| brothers fought in Grenada, and the
other served in Desert |
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| Storm; and
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| WHEREAS, Lt. Slavenas was from the F Company 106 Aviation |
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| Battalion based at
the Greater
Peoria Airport; he was one of |
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| the 16 soldiers killed when insurgents shot down
a
Chinook |
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| helicopter west of Bagdad; it was the deadliest strike against |
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| United
States forces since they invaded Iraq in March; and
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| WHEREAS, He was affectionately known as a "gentle giant"; |
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| he competed in
weightlifting competitions and played the piano |