[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 23 (Monday, March 7, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 7, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
         VFW HONORS TRUE PATRIOT, REPUBLICAN LEADER BOB MICHEL

                                 ______


                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 7, 1994

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, never was a man more deserving of a 
particular award than Republican Leader Bob Michel of the VFW 
Congressional Award, the presentation of which I had the honor to 
witness on March 1.
  The award is presented to someone with a proven record of ``fostering 
of true patriotism, maintaining and extending the institutions of 
American freedom, and preserving and defending our country from all her 
enemies, at home and abroad.''
  That, Mr. Speaker, has guided Bob Michel since his first election to 
Congress in 1956. But Bob Michel's defense of freedom began long before 
that. As a combat infantryman in World War II, Bob Michel earned two 
Bronze Stars, the Purple Heart, and four Battle Stars in France, 
Belgium, and Germany.
  He talked about those experiences in his acceptance speech, which I 
proudly place in today's Record, yielding to the distinguished 
gentleman from Peoria, IL, a true American hero, House Republican 
Leader Bob Michel.

Remarks by House Republican Leader Robert H. Michel, VFW, March 1, 1994

       I am glad we meet in the presence of the winners of the 
     Voice of Democracy Contest. These wonderful young Americans 
     remind us that great nations survive and prosper if they 
     retain two qualities: Memory and hope.
       If we do not remember what has made our country great, we 
     will not be able to keep our country free. If we lose hope in 
     a better future, we will lose the optimistic American spirit 
     that has helped our country prosper. Those of us in the older 
     generation are filled with memories; you of the younger 
     generation are filled with hope. We have much to learn from 
     each other. So I am highly honored to receive this award in 
     the presence of the best of America's past and the best of 
     America's future.
       Tonight, I speak to you out of a mixture of memory and 
     hope. Exactly fifty years ago today, March 1, 1944, I was in 
     England, training to be part of the invasion of Europe. On 
     that day the war news was fairly good for the allies: 
     American troops landed in the Admiralty Islands in the 
     Pacific, clearing a path for the retaking of the Philippine 
     Islands; In Europe, the Red Army continued to advance in the 
     Baltics; the American Eighth Air Force had clear weather for 
     attacks on the Pas-de-Calais area in France, where rumor had 
     it the Allied invasion would come.
       Rumor, of course, was wrong as usual--but the Nazis didn't 
     know that! In Italy, our troops, were being pounded, by 
     German artillery on the Anzio beachhead. Not an extraordinary 
     day in the war--except for those who were being killed, 
     wounded or terrorized in combat.
       I was with my Army buddies in England, getting ready for 
     the invasion we knew would come--but we didn't know where or 
     when. When the time came we dutifully followed orders hoping 
     that our training, conditioning and the good Lord would 
     sustain us. I was one of the very fortunate to survive it all 
     from Normandy through France, Belgium and Germany up to the 
     Battle of the Bulge when I was hit by machine gun fire and 
     flown back to England. After my hospitalization I returned to 
     the Continent landing at Le Havre on VE Day where there was 
     so much shooting going on in celebration we thought the war 
     had broken out all over again.
       While we infantry dog faces were waiting to be redeployed 
     back to the States, we had a lot of time to talk to pass the 
     time and I remember so well our talking about keeping a 
     strong presence in Europe to preserve the peace and guard 
     against the next generation having to go through what we 
     experienced. We weren't ``interventionists''. We weren't 
     ``internationalists''. Most of us didn't know what those big 
     words meant. All we knew was that we had seen so many of our 
     buddies killed that we'd never let the folks back home 
     forget.
       I was fortunate for coming back, to finish college and they 
     by chance get very actively in the political process where I 
     could play an active role in pursuing the goals we veterans 
     just talked about overseas.
       We Veterans of Foreign Wars support a strong defense 
     because we know freedom has to be defended anew by each 
     generation. Al although it took forty-five years, our 
     determination to defend freedom in the Cold War period proved 
     to be correct. It led to our victory over Soviet Communism 
     because the American people, for more than a generation, were 
     willing to sacrifice lives and treasure to support freedom 
     and stop tyranny. It is the longest sustained struggle in our 
     history.
       Some folks say we spend too much for defense during those 
     years. I strongly disagree and would simply ask those folks 
     how much is the survival of American freedom worth to you? 
     Think of what has happened: the Soviet Union no longer 
     exists. Eastern Europe, long, enslaved to Communism, is free. 
     The threat of nuclear annihilation has not passed--but it has 
     been significantly diminished. But I am sad to say that many 
     Americans just take our victory for granted.
       It reminds me of an old saying about our country: In times 
     of national threat, there is unity. In times of great 
     victory, there is euphoria. And after the victory is won, 
     there is amnesia. We just tend to forget how difficult it is 
     to defend freedom. We get lazy. We find the support of our 
     military to be too burdensome. Slash the military budget! 
     Demean military virtues! Question the very need for military 
     strength! It happened for World War One. It happened after 
     World War Two, and just before the war in Korea. I fear it is 
     happening again: our nation is forgetting. But I say to you 
     this evening: we veterans of foreign wars cannot allow it to 
     happen again.
       We do remember. And we cannot allow others to forget. Let 
     me put our current situation in historical context--another 
     exercise in memory: The United States of America has gone 
     through four great periods of transition, each beginning with 
     the conclusion of a great war:
       After the American Revolution our country was in a period 
     of transition from the birth of a nation to the growth of a 
     nation. Some said a young, small, democratic nation could 
     never survive. But we fooled them. After the Civil War we 
     were changing from a primarily agricultural nation to a great 
     industrial giant. Some said a nation of so many poor 
     immigrants could not build a great future. But we did. After 
     World War Two we were between the end of a hot war and the 
     beginning of The Cold War. Some feared we would never have 
     the staying power to outlast Soviet Communism. Tell that to 
     Lenin's statues! And now we are at the fourth great period of 
     national transition, a time when the world of the Cold War is 
     dying and a new world waits to be born.
       The present time is one of conflict, and of rapid change, 
     of great promise and great tragedy. As Vaclav Havel, 
     President of the Czech Republic said to a joint session of 
     the Congress when he was here: ``In our time, things are 
     happening so fast, we have no time to be astonished.''
       Bosnia, Haiti and Somalia remind us that trouble can erupt 
     in the most unlikely places. Think of China: huge, ambitious, 
     the nation that will shape much of the history of the first 
     part of the 21st century--for good or for evil. Think of the 
     former Soviet Union, with all its problems in throwing off 
     the old system and their hopes for emulating ours. Think of 
     Communist North Korea with it's present leadership and 
     nuclear capability. Then there is international terrorism and 
     the rise of militant anti-western Islamic groups.
       I know there are those who say we can't afford to be 
     prepared for these new challenges. But veterans of foreign 
     wars can tell you that the only thing a free nation cannot 
     afford is not to be prepared. We must remember that readiness 
     means not only the capability of our armed forces to fight, 
     but the determination of our people to sacrifice. We must 
     remember that preparedness means not just technological 
     superiority, but belief in our nation's high principles. And 
     we must remember the litany of place-names that have helped 
     to create and preserve this nation:
       We must remember Valley Forge and Gettysburg. We must 
     remember the trenches of France in 1918, D Day, and the 
     Battle of the Bulge in 1944 and those fierce battles of 
     Tarawa, Okinawa, Iwo Jima and the Coral Sea. We must remember 
     the ice-covered hills of Korea, the steaming jungles of 
     Vietnam, and the sands of Iraq during the Gulf War. In 
     January of 1991, when we voted to authorize President Bush to 
     use force in the Persian Gulf, I led the bi-partisan House 
     coalition in supporting that resolution. And I can tell you 
     it was a moment of great anguish for me personally as well as 
     great pride.
       I knew I was sending young men and women into combat and I 
     remembered that I had nothing to say but to follow orders 
     when I was a young man. Here I had come full circle, thrust 
     now in the role of making the agonizing decision to send 
     others to war with all the uncertainties of how many 
     casualties would be on my conscience and how well or how 
     badly our game plan would be executed. It was a wrenching 
     experience, the single toughest decision I have ever had to 
     make as a congressman. But it was the right decision.
       Thanks to the American people, whose sacrifices gave us the 
     technology and the arms and the best military in the world, 
     we won that conflict. Now here we are facing a new world 
     whose shape we cannot yet discern and whose challenges we 
     cannot yet know. But tonight I have good reason to hope our 
     country can master these challenges--and give shape to the 
     world of the 21st century. And the reason that hope is so 
     strong is the generation symbolized by our Voice of Democracy 
     winners here tonight.
       So in conclusion, let me say to our younger folks: You see 
     before you a proud grandfather. The war I fought is so 
     distant from your experiences. It was in another age, another 
     world. So it may seem we have little in common. But fifty 
     years ago tonight, as I lay on my cot in England, knowing we 
     were preparing to invade Fortress Europe, I was barely out of 
     my teens. I dreamed the same kind of dreams you dream--about 
     the future, about hopes, about memories, about loved ones. 
     And so did my buddies, but I must say our hopes and our 
     dreams at the time were tethered by the fear, anxiety and 
     apprehension of what the future held for each of us.
       I had the good fortune to return and to try to make those 
     hopes become reality. But so very many of my friends never 
     got the chance. I have never forgotten them. And their great 
     sacrifice reminds me: In every generation, young Americans 
     have dreamed the dreams of youth and of hope. But when the 
     time came to defend our nation, they have done their duty to 
     protect freedom. I know in my heart your generation will 
     continue that great tradition.
       So as I accept this great honor tonight, I do so in memory 
     of the fallen, of all our buddies who did not come back from 
     all the wars--but I also receive it as a symbol of hope, of 
     hope in the courage, the faith and the patriotism of a great 
     new generation of Americans like all of you. Out of such 
     memories, out of such hope, I am certain our nation will 
     continue to be strong and proud and free.
  

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