Panetta Makes Fourth of July Calls to Deployed Service Members

WASHINGTON — Six for­ward-deployed U.S. ser­vice mem­bers began their Fourth of July morn­ing with tele­phone calls from Defense Sec­re­tary Leon E. Panet­ta.

Panet­ta, sworn in as the nation’s 23rd sec­re­tary of defense on Fri­day, reached out late Sun­day evening to con­vey his thanks and sup­port for their ser­vice, Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense for Pub­lic Affairs Doug Wil­son said today. 

The defense sec­re­tary spoke by phone with ser­vice mem­bers deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq and Bahrain, Wil­son said. 

“They rep­re­sent America’s men and women in uni­form who are away from their fam­i­lies on this July 4 week­end,” Wil­son added, not­ing that they “come from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and the Army Nation­al Guard.” 

Panet­ta told each ser­vice mem­ber how proud he was of their ser­vice and empha­sized to each his com­mit­ment to fight for them and their fam­i­lies as they are fight­ing for their coun­try, Wil­son said. 

“He told each that he looks for­ward to meet­ing them dur­ing his trav­els as sec­re­tary,” Wil­son added. 

The names, home towns and loca­tions where they are aserv­ing are as follows: 

U.S. Army Spc. Dar­win Siquig is serv­ing in Afghanistan and is from Kahuku, Hawaii. 

U.S. Navy Pet­ty Offi­cer 2nd Class Shain Fra­zier Jr. is serv­ing in Afghanistan and is from San Diego, Calif. 

U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Frankie Liz­cano is serv­ing in Afghanistan and is from San Anto­nio, Texas. 

U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Jay D’Am­i­co is serv­ing in Afghanistan. He is orig­i­nal­ly from Joli­et, Ill., and now lives in Sur­prise, Ariz. 

U.S. Coast Guard Pet­ty Offi­cer 1st Class Bran­don Fraw­ley is serv­ing in Bahrain. He is orig­i­nal­ly from Augus­ta, Ga., and he and his fam­i­ly now live in New­port, N.C.

Army Nation­al Guard Staff Sgt. Kel­ly Ann Pels is serv­ing in Iraq. She is from Cler­mont Coun­ty, Ohio. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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