The Veto Pen

Sometimes the pen used to sign a document in DC has something to it. I'm not certain of the history of the pen used by Pelosi yesterday to sign the "Surrender to al Qaeda Bill", but I did catch an interesting fact about the pen Bush used to veto the bill.

The pen was given to Bush by Robert Derga. Robert spoke to the President at the white house two weeks ago. He asked Bush to promise to use this pen for the veto, and yesterday, called Bush to remind him to use the pen.

Robert Derga is the father of Cpl. Dustin Derga. The 24-year-old Dustin Derga served with Lima Company, 3rd Battalion 25th Marines from Columbus, Ohio. He was killed in Iraq May 8, 2005 by an armor-piercing round.

Dustin was a reservist who before deployment served as a volunteer fireman while going to school for paramedic and fire science. He was killed during Operation Matador, a large scale operation on the Syrian border where insurgents from other countries were entering Iraq. No one knew that the town of Ubaydi had been overrun by insurgents. Since the town was full of civilians, they could not bomb the town and had to conduct house-to-house searches. They found no one until the last house. The door was reinforced which made it impossible to enter. Suddenly, armor piercing bullets ripped through the walls of the house. He was evacuated and died on the surgeon's table.

March 24th, 2006 Robert Derga had this to say, "The battle is not over. It's a war on terrorism. The terrorists are still there. If we don't stay, they will be back again. They're not going to give up. We shouldn't either." Robert gave these words alongside 20 Ohio military families who have lost relatives in the war on terrorism while they announced the formation of Ohio Families United, a group that works to publicize progress in Iraq and support the troops. The group is a chapter of the national group Families United for Our Troops, which connects military families, including Gold and Blue Star members, and veterans.

“He always had a great smile on his face. All the guys in Dustin’s unit said he was always making them laugh. He wasn’t the most ‘squared away’ Marine, but he had a passion for the Corps and was proud to be a Marine. Dustin really respected his brothers in the unit and he tried to have a good time with his comrades even under the worst of conditions.”

This is how you veto a bill of surrender.