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2006 SPECIAL SESSION I
WHEREAS, Chief Petty Officer Paul J. Darga, aged 34, died in the line of duty in Al Anbar province in Iraq on August 22, 2006; and
WHEREAS, Chief Petty Officer Darga was based at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach, and upon arriving in Iraq in June 2006, began his fourth tour of duty in the Middle East; and
WHEREAS, born into a career Army family, Paul Darga lived in Spain and Japan for a while, moved with his family to Michigan when his father retired from the military, and fell in love and married his high school sweetheart, Karie, in 1994; and
WHEREAS, Paul Darga joined the United States Navy as a Seabee, completed diving school, and was assigned to an underwater construction team at Little Creek; and
WHEREAS, a dedicated professional who was determined to make the Navy his career, Paul Darga began a year of rigorous explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) training in Florida; and
WHEREAS, Paul Darga, a highly skilled and committed team member assigned to the Navy's EOD Mobile Unit Two, was promoted to chief petty officer in September 2005; and
WHEREAS, on May 26, 2006, Chief Petty Officer Darga and 20 other valiant and deserving anti-bomb experts from his tight-knit Little Creek unit were honored with the Bronze Star for Valor for their hazardous and valuable work disposing of bombs, weapons caches, and unexploded weapons during the heat of combat, in essence saving the lives of countless coalition soldiers and Iraqi citizens; and
WHEREAS, specifically, Chief Petty Officer Darga was cited for personally supervising 163 ordnance disposal missions by his team, which resulted in the removal of more than 6,000 pounds of captured explosives and the defusing of 40 improvised explosive devices (IEDs); and
WHEREAS, Chief Petty Officer Darga's "outstanding performance, dedication to duty and courage while performing his duties under hostile fire were critical to the success of coalition operations under the most extreme and austere conditions"; and
WHEREAS, Chief Petty Officer Darga will be fondly remembered for his great love of his family and his country and will be missed by his devoted wife Karie, his beautiful two-year-old daughter, Kailey Rose, his loving father, and countless other family members and friends; and
WHEREAS, Chief Petty Officer Darga's death is a reminder of the perils faced daily by the thousands of young Americans who serve in our armed forces overseas and whose devotion to duty places them in harm's way; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Delegates hereby note with great sadness the loss of a courageous and patriotic Virginian, Chief Petty Officer Paul J. Darga; and, be it
RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the family of Chief Petty Officer Paul J. Darga as an expression of the high regard in which his memory is held by the members of the House of Delegates and the citizens of Virginia.