[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 72 (Friday, June 10, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 10, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
   A MOMENTOUS 50TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION OF THE NORMANDY LANDING

  (Mr. LANTOS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, as the author of the resolution 
commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Normandy landing, in my 
wildest dreams, I did not expect the occasion to be as historic, as 
moving, as momentous as it turned out to be.
  I want to pay tribute to you, Mr. Speaker, for leading with great 
distinction and effectiveness the bipartisan congressional delegation, 
and I want to recognize the distinguished Republican leader, the 
gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Michel], a hero of the landing, for his 
contributions to the festivities. I want to say a word about Sam 
Gibbons, our colleague who landed in Normandy before the D-day invasion 
with the first wave of paratroopers, who represented the President as a 
personal representative at many of the ceremonies.
  But most of all, Mr. Speaker, I want to pay tribute again to those 
heroes 50 years ago who saved civilization and free and open and 
democratic societies.
  I must add that the President and Mrs. Clinton represented our Nation 
with enormous dignity, effectiveness, and brilliance. I had the 
privilege of attending many of the memorial functions with them, but 
the most moving perhaps was the one at Colleville-sur-Mer the last day 
at the American national cemetery. As the International Herald Tribune 
reported, the President expressed his deep feelings for our Nation's 
veterans, as follows:

       Looking out across the cemetery where 9,386 Americans lie 
     under trim rows of white crosses and Stars of David, the 
     President spoke movingly of the fathers we never knew, the 
     uncles we never met, the friends who never returned, the 
     heroes we can never repay.

  We will remain in permanent debt to the heroes of Normandy and all 
the heroes of the Second World War who stood up against tyranny and 
made democracy triumph.

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