so how did mary tarr come to spend a care package to ryan? so typical of mary. she was in massachusetts attending the funeral of a friend and while there, she went into a shop and to buy a gift for h.r. mother and father. mary chose a marine corps kite for her dad who satisfied purple heart in vietnam and ryan's mother was in the shop and asked mary if she had a marine because of what she was buying. mary told her she was a barn corps brat and the kite was for her father. but she asked if kathy had a marine and when kathy told her about ryan, mary immediately wrote the information down, got his address, and then seeing her job through like every single one she's ever undertaken she stayed in touch with ryan until he came home. i think -- you know, i personally know how important those packages are, and i will tell you that one of the things i'm proudest of is what mary has done on behalf of her country and certainly those of us who make decisions to send people into combat. and i'm proud of her. mr. president, she may be retiring but she's got enormous plans ahe

well, that is exactly the quality that mary tarr has brought to my office over these years. a mix of relationships, building relationships, institutional memory and a lot of guile at times, and they get things done. and so since the summer of 1997 when she came aboard in my office, mary has literally been my red in my office, and over the course of nearly 15 years, no matter what i needed, no matter what the office needed, no matter what we needed to get done, she managed to make that happen. i must say i was very lucky, mr. president, because i didn't have the ability to show her any tricks. she taught me the tricks. the reason is that she came to me already a master of senate procedure. i was privileged to be the fifth united states senator that she worked for, for 15 years, i might add. before me, she had split her assignment down the middle, between democrats and republicans. she worked for patty murray, she worked for brock adams, she worked for republicans jim abner and charles percy. she knew this place, she has always loved this place, and she knew pretty much everyb