[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1292]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                               MY MISSION

  (Mr. DORNAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, 40 years ago, in College Station, TX--Phil 
Gramm country--I pinned on Air Force wings of silver. Forty years is a 
long time. When my dad was in his eighties, he said, ``Son, your whole 
life will seem like 3 weeks when you get to my age.''
  I have reflected back over my life, and as awed and as humbled as I 
was by being elected to this great deliberative body in the 
bicentennial year, it was not the greatest event of my life. Those 
events are marriage, 5 children, 9 grandchildren. I proposed to my wife 
40 years ago tomorrow night, after driving all night to get to 
California.
  But the greatest event in my public life was these wings. Imagine 
serving with men, every one of them like John Glenn, John McCain, Pete 
Peterson, ``Duke'' Cunningham, our own ``Gary Cooper,'' Sam Johnson. I 
owe it to those men to go into the melee next week and explore things 
in Iowa and New Hampshire and at least South Carolina. Only God knows 
the outcome. But I am ready for what may be the toughest mission of my 
life. I do not know how far I will go, but I am going to give it a try.


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