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2007 SESSION

076665760
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 462
Offered January 30, 2007
Celebrating the life of Staff Sergeant Darryl Demetrial Booker.
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Patrons-- Martin and Watkins; Delegates: Cox, Nixon and Ware, R.L.
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WHEREAS, Staff Sergeant Darryl Demetrial Booker of Midlothian, a member of the Virginia Army National Guard supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom, was killed in the line of duty on January 20, 2007; and

WHEREAS, Staff Sergeant Booker was a full-time technician at the Army Aviation Support Facility in Sandston, working as a flight operations specialist; and

WHEREAS, Darryl Booker was born in Richmond on May 20, 1969; he joined the Virginia Army National Guard on August 29, 1986, as a flight operations coordinator; and

WHEREAS, inspired to further serve his country, Staff Sergeant Booker signed up for active duty on June 12, 1989, and was assigned to the Air Traffic Controller Section, Fort Rucker, Alabama, and subsequently served in Korea and Fort Polk, Louisiana, until July 21, 1996; and

WHEREAS, after being released from active duty, Staff Sergeant Booker rejoined the Virginia Army National Guard on October 4, 1996, and was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 224th Aviation Regiment, as a flight operations specialist, filling critical vacancies within the aviation community; and

WHEREAS, Staff Sergeant Booker served in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq, and Kuwait; he was specifically requested, because of his experience and past service, to again deploy to Iraq in October 2006 to support the chief of Reserve Component Division, MultiNational Corps–Iraq; and

WHEREAS, Staff Sergeant Booker and a fellow Virginian, Colonel Paul M. Kelly of Stafford, were among 12 soldiers killed when their Black Hawk helicopter went down northeast of Baghdad on January 20, 2007; and

WHEREAS, Staff Sergeant Booker will be fondly remembered as a loving husband and father and greatly missed by his devoted wife, daughter, four step-children, and other family members, as well as numerous friends and compatriots in the National Guard; and

WHEREAS, Staff Sergeant Booker's death is a reminder of the hazards faced daily by the thousands of brave Americans who serve in our armed forces overseas and whose devotion to duty places them in harm's way; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, That the General Assembly hereby note with great sadness the loss of a courageous and patriotic Virginian, Staff Sergeant Darryl Demetrial Booker; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the Senate prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the family of Staff Sergeant Darryl Demetrial Booker as an expression of the high regard in which his memory is held by the members of the General Assembly and the citizens of the Commonwealth.