[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 109 (Tuesday, August 9, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 9, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
               A SALUTE TO THOSE IN SERVICE TO OUR NATION

                                 ______


                           HON. TIM VALENTINE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 9, 1994

  Mr. VALENTINE. Mr. Speaker, centuries ago, a group of Native 
Americans on the western end of this continent dwelled high on the 
barren face of a mountain, among the wind and eagles. They went about 
the business of living in an environment where one careless step on a 
steep path meant death in the gorge below.
  These ancient cliff dwellers long ago vanished into the dust of 
history, only to be replaced by a modern breed.
  Members who are not directly involved at the committee level with 
either authorizing or appropriating funds for the armed services have 
limited opportunities to observe up close the men, women, and machinery 
of the Nation's defense establishment. Nevertheless, several 
opportunities have been afforded to me over these 11\1/2\ years, each 
of which left me awe struck, proud, and frankly relieved by what I saw.
  Several years ago, I took a trip to Antarctica in the belly of a 
naval aircraft, a sturdy old C-130 crowded with supplies and 
scientists, along with a hand-full of Congressmen and staffers tucked 
in here and there. The airplanes used on trips like this are older than 
the men and women who fly them. Yet they land on the bright, white 
nothingness of that continent at the bottom of the world and return 
safely to Christchurch, New Zealand.
  More recently, I took an overnight trip on the Trident submarine 
Kentucky, observing first-hand the skill and dedication of men 
performing tedious and very complicated tasks, while packed like 
sardines in the innards of that modern leviathan.
  On the weekend of June 24 and 25, 1994, five Congressmen and others 
flew onto the deck of the nuclear carrier Teddy Roosevelt, passed the 
night, and were catapulted back to civilian life the next day. Images 
of this experience will be with me for the remainder of my life--the 
naked danger, the heat, noise, mist, and motion of jets landing against 
the stress of mighty cables jerking them back to the deck like giant 
rubber bands. Simultaneously, steaming, roaring catapults flung other 
jets from the deck of the mighty ship into the air and out over the 
sea. The men and women who pilot these craft are staring into the face 
of death and accepting this as a way of life, going about their work 
with discipline and skill. Whether in the clouds over Antarctica, under 
the Atlantic Ocean next to a nuclear warhead, or landing on a cold, 
dark night on the deck of the Teddy Roosevelt, they are the modern 
cliff dwellers. May God bless and keep them.

                          ____________________