[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 30 (Wednesday, February 15, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2732-S2736]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                IWO JIMA

  Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, could we have order?
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed to proceed 
for 5 minutes to deliver a eulogy honoring those men who died and who 
were wounded and who participated in the battle of Iwo Jima, 50 years 
ago.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mrs. BOXER. The Senate is not in order, Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, 50 years ago, I was stationed at Marine 
Corps Air Station, Cherry Point, NC, while serving as a radio operator 
having achieved the rank of sergeant. That was on February 19, 1945. I 
listened with rapt attention, along with my fellow marines, to radio 
reports of a massive marine assault on an obscure Pacific island called 
Iwo Jima. Though at that time, I doubt whether any one of us could 
pinpoint that island on a map----
  Several Senators addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate will be in order.
  The Senator may proceed.
  Mr. BUMPERS. The name Iwo Jima would soon take its place along such 
hallowed names as Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, Belleau Wood, Normandy, and 
Tarawa Atoll. As a vast naval armada moved closer to the shores of Iwo 
Jima, the commanders who would soon send their young marines into 
battle prepared messages to be read shortly before H-hour on board all 
ships of the invasion fleet. Maj. Gen. Clifton B. Cates, commanding the 
4th Marine Division, reminded his marines of their recent victory on
 Tinian in the Mariana Islands, where the division's ``perfectly 
executed amphibious operation'' resulted in the capture of the island 
in 9 days, ``with a minimum of casualties to our unit, and with heavy 
losses to the enemy.'' Similarly, Maj. Gen. Keller E. Rockey, 
commanding the 5th Marine Division, searched for the proper words to 
exhort his men. Unable to draw upon past glories, as his division would 
fight together as a unit for the first time on Iwo Jima, Rockey 
reminded his men that the ``time has now come for us to take our place 
in the battle line.'' Noting that ``the hopes and prayers of our people 
go with us,'' he assured his marines that ``we will not fail.'' The 
upcoming 36-day battle on Iwo Jima would fully justify the confidence 
which Generals Cates and Rockey placed in their marines.

  One of the most visible and poignant memorials in this city
   commemorates the flag raising on Mt. Suribachi, the Iwo Jima 
Memorial, 4 days after the landing, but the battle would rage for 32 
  more days.Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, the Senate is not in order.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate will be in order.
  The Senator from Arkansas may proceed.
  Mr. BUMPERS. The Iwo Jima Memorial is a fitting tribute to the 5,391 
men killed, 17,370 men wounded, and the 60,000 men in that total force. 
But it is a tragedy that there cannot be a statue 
 [[Page S2733]] for every single brave marine who participated in that 
bloody battle.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent I be permitted to proceed for 
an additional 5 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, I cannot tell you how contemptuous I am 
of the fact that we could not get order in the Senate to deliver this 
tribute. Some of our own colleagues were heroes during World War II. 
Senator John Glenn, a brave marine, is on the Senate floor now. Nobody 
in this body fought longer and harder than he. And in one of the 
bloodiest battles of all, the battle of Guadalcanal, was Senator John 
Chafee of Rhode Island.
  I was asked by the Marine Corps to deliver this memorial, and I was 
happy to do it. I was not at Iwo Jima. I was just a young marine 
getting ready to be shipped out to invade Japan.
  Mr. President, many people in this body remember very little about 
World War II and nothing about Iwo Jima. We wanted that island so we 
could bomb Japan from the islands of Tinian, Guam, and Saipan. We 
needed Iwo Jima so that disabled planes that could not make it back to 
Tinian from Japan would have a relatively safe haven on which to land. 
It is estimated that the landing strip at Iwo Jima saved the lives of 
25,000 airmen who would have had to ditch at sea and probably would 
have been lost if it had not been for those brave, almost 6,000, men 
who gave their lives there.
  I do not intend to criticize my colleagues, but it is tragic that 
sometimes people do not show more respect for those who provided the 
liberties for this Nation so we could stand here and debate these 
issues as free men and women. It is disappointing.
  Last night I went to bed, turned on the television set because that 
is a good way to go to sleep, and just happened to turn to PBS, the 
station so many people want to get rid of. I started watching a 
documentary on Iwo Jima, one of the most gut-wrenching documentaries I 
have ever witnessed. Men who had never talked about that battle, even 
to their wives and children, poured out their souls and their hearts to 
those interviewers. One man said that he killed a Japanese and when he 
went over to him--I do not know whether he killed him or whether he 
came upon him--and he said he had a wallet sticking out of his top 
pocket. He reached over and took it out. He was going to take it. He 
opened it up, and there was a picture of this young Japanese soldier's 
mother and father and of his wife and child. And he put it back. He 
said, ``I knew that that man was doing exactly what he had been forced 
to do, what he had been told to do--try to kill me. And I had'' been 
programmed to try to kill him. And he said, ``What a terrible way to 
resolve our differences.''
  One other man said the Japanese were famous for having gold teeth. 
``So,'' he said, ``I went around taking gold teeth out of Japanese 
soldiers' mouths. Got a bag full.'' He said, ``I can hardly stand to 
tell you that, it is so barbaric. But war is barbaric. I was just 
young. It is a terrible, shameful thing to admit that today. At the 
time I thought it was OK.''
  Another man said there was a man in his company who said he went 
around cutting off the ears of Japanese soldiers--barbaric. Somebody 
told the company commander. This man, who had gathered a whole sack 
full of ears, was required by his company commander to dig a hole 6 
feet deep and bury them and cover them.
  But of all those men of my age and a little older who spoke last 
night, virtually every one of them said, ``I did not hate the Japanese. 
I knew they were doing what they had to do, just as I was doing what I 
had to do.''
  I am honored to have been a Marine, honored to have served in the 
same war, in the same service, with men like John Glenn, Howell Heflin 
and John Chafee, and especially honored to be asked by the Marine Corps 
to deliver this short eulogy to those 6,000 men who died and the 17,000 
who were wounded and all of the 60,000 who participated.
  One man said last night that he felt almost guilty, after seeing what 
he had seen, coming home alive. I can sort of relate to that.
  Mr. President, I know everybody in this body joins me in paying 
tribute to these very brave men.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I just want to personally express my regard 
for the senior Senator from Arkansas, for the eloquent way he has paid 
tribute to those who died for us, to those who were wounded for us, and 
to those who fought for us, including himself and others in this body. 
As someone who lost his only brother in the Second World War after his 
10th commission, I have to say that I was really moved by what the 
distinguished Senator had to say.
  Mr. SIMON addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, I served after the opening of World War II, 
but I can remember Iwo Jima vividly. My political mentor was Paul 
Douglas, who served in this body, was a great U.S. Senator, was a 
marine, and proud to be a marine in spirit. I wish I could hear Paul 
Douglas give a talk today. He was 50 years old when he volunteered to 
be a marine, went over and was wounded in Okinawa and Iwo Jima.
  But I think of people like Dale Bumpers and John Glenn when we talk 
about courage. You look about, and Howell Heflin, he was in the 
Marines, too. We can be very, very proud of those who served our 
country. But I think of John Glenn and that little thing that he got 
into when he was shot into space. It was incredible. I see our 
colleague, Chuck Robb, who was in the Marines, and John Chafee, and 
probably some others here who were in the Marines.
  As one who was not in the Marines, who was not in the service during 
that period--I was in from 1951 to 1953--I just want to say we are very 
proud of those who served in the Marines, those who served in that 
Pacific war. It was a war where we were fighting people who were 
forced, as Senator Bumpers said, to do the things that we were forced 
to do. It was a war where there was clear aggression, where we stood up 
for what we should stand for.
  I am proud, as an American who was too young to fight in World War 
II, of those who did.
  Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I would like to express my thanks and 
appreciation to the senior Senator from Arkansas for the very eloquent 
remarks he made--and it is so fitting that he did so for this body and 
for all of us--about what took place in Iwo Jima. I was not at Iwo 
Jima. I do not know if anybody in this Chamber was in the Battle of Iwo 
Jima. There is no question that there were fierce battles in the 
Pacific in World War II.
  I think Senator Bumpers has portrayed it so eloquently--the values, 
why the whole thing took place. It took place exactly as he said--so 
that those bombers which were going from Tinian, from Guam, to Japan 
would have a place, if they were shot up, as they were, to seek a 
harbor of refuge, as it were.
  I can remember. I was a young marine at the time on Guam. For the 
bombers on Guam, they built two parallel strips for those B-29's to 
take off. And they would take off on the minute on one runway and on 
the half minute on the other runway. They assembled some 500 of them on 
these trips to Japan. It was between a 16- and 18-hour round trip for 
those bombers. Then, of course, when they completed their mission over 
Japan, after flying up there, a 7- to 8-hour trip up there with those 
great loads, then they would start back, many of them badly shot up, 
and their goal was to get to Iwo Jima.
  The time I am talking about was some months after we had secured Iowa 
Jima. I had a friend in one of those B-29's. He was the pilot. He 
radioed ahead to Iwo Jima that he was in a condition 3. As I recall, 
that was a term for the really desperate to land, and that gave him 
priority. You set your own conditions based upon the number of engines 
out and the amount of gas you had left. They said to him, ``How much 
fuel do you have? How long can you circle?'' He said for 4 minutes. 
They said, ``Circle for 3 minutes. Your priority is set.'' So he made 
it safely. But that shows you the congestion that was at Iwo Jima and 
the value of that.
  So, as Senator Bumpers so eloquently pointed out, 6,000 men were 
lost, and it was a terrible thing. It was a case where they gave their 
lives for 
 [[Page S2734]] somebody else. I did not know the figures. But Senator 
Bumpers indicated some 25,000--I can well believe that figure--airmen 
were saved. So it was a dramatic period, when the very best came out in 
our country and those who were there.
  I am so glad Senator Bumpers called our attention to it.
  Mr. HEFLIN. Mr. President, I am in the process of preparing remarks, 
and have worked on them today, dealing with the Battle of Iwo Jima. I 
have some remarks that were prepared to deliver tomorrow, probably in 
morning business.
  But I am moved by the eloquence of Senator Bumpers. It brought back 
to me a lot of personal feelings that were heightened by his remarks. 
My division, the 3rd division, was in reserve in the landing on Iwo 
Jima. The 4th and the 5th Marine Divisions landed on D-Day, and they 
moved inland basically uncontested for awhile. But then the Japanese 
guns came forth from their pill boxes and from their fortifications 
that they had worked on for months and months, and complete devastation 
took place on the beaches of Iwo Jima.
  It was decided that the 3rd Marine Division, which was being held in 
reserve, would be committed, and the 3rd division was committed. I had 
been a member of A company, 1st battalion, 9th Marines. That is 9th 
regiment in Bougainville and Guam. I was wounded in Guam and came back 
to the United States, and was in a hospital on the day of D-Day that 
they landed.
  I later talked to the survivors of A company. They told me that A 
company, 1st battalion, 9th Marines, 3d Marine Division, suffered more 
than 200 percent casualties on Iwo Jima. They sent in replacements at 
various stages before the island was finally captured.
 I lost many a friend in that battle. The raising of the flag on Mount 
Suribachi is symbolic of the battle in the Pacific, where we really, by 
great military strategy, went through a campaign of island hopping, by 
which they would select an island that was in a very strategic position 
and bypass most of the well-fortified islands that the Japanese thought 
we would be attacking first. This island-hopping strategy reduced the 
casualties tremendously. But Iwo Jima lay in a position 660 miles off 
of the coast of Japan. The Japanese had built two airstrips and were in 
the process of building a third airstrip, primarily to place on that 
island. Most of their fighter pilot planes were left with the idea of 
intercepting our bombers as they came through from Guam, or Tinian, or 
Saipan to Japan. As Senator Bumpers and Senator Chafee have pointed 
out, the planes that came back, many of them damaged by antiaircraft 
and fighter pilots of the Japanese, landed in an emergency on land. But 
it also was very important in our victory against the Japanese in that 
it destroyed a potential fighter pilot baseline that could have caused 
  tremendous problems relative to that.But I look back in memory of my 
friends that I lost, and I would have been on Iwo Jima with my outfit 
if I had not been back in the United States at that particular time. 
The words that stick in my mind are the words of Admiral Nimitz 
following the Battle of Iwo Jima when he said: ``Uncommon valor was a 
common virtue.'' The marines that participated in that, and the Navy 
that was involved, and the Air Force, everybody concerned, really were 
great heroes, and we will be honoring the 50th commemoration of that 
battle in the near future. I believe Sunday there is a ceremony at the 
Iwo Jima monument. So I pay tribute to those that lost their lives, to 
those that were wounded, and to those that helped in that very 
important battle to bring about V-J Day.


                                Iwo Jima

  Mr. GLENN. Mr. President, I associate myself with the remarks of 
Senator Bumpers and the others that have spoken so eloquently about Iwo 
here today. I was in World War II and in the Pacific but not in the 
Battle of Iwo Jima. After the war, we were assigned to China. I was 
stationed for 6 months in Beijing; it was called Peking then. Our 
squadron flew out later on and landed at Iwo, and this was after the 
war. We had a chance to walk those same black sand beaches that they 
came in on during the battle of Iwo.
  It is hard to see how anybody could ever make it up those beaches, 
which were the only landing areas on the island, because the cliffs 
above that area were all honeycombed with caves back in the rocks. Guns 
would come out and fire. Machine guns would go out and fire and go back 
into the hole again. Unless the naval gunfire that supported them there 
made a direct hit on the tiny openings, they kept coming out and mowing 
people down, down below them. We walked in those caves and looked down 
as the Japanese gunners were able to look down on the beach at that 
time, and how anybody ever got ashore there with that kind of withering 
fire looking right down their throats is something that is hard to 
fathom. It was so impressive that I remember it very, very vividly to 
this very day.
  The reasons for the sacrifices have been spoken about here this 
afternoon. Senator Heflin has mentioned the motto that is on the Iwo 
statue at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue on the edge of Arlington 
Cemetery: ``Uncommon valor was a common virtue.'' Indeed it was. It is 
hard to look at Iwo and to be there on Mount Suribachi, or to go down 
and be in those caves and look down on the black sand beaches and 
imagine how anyone could come across those beaches, where the soft 
rolling sand underfoot--literally, where we tried to walk you would 
take almost two steps forward and one back, that type of situation. 
That loose, pebbly type sand was so difficult to even get tracks on. It 
was hard for them to move at that time. Uncommon valor was indeed a 
common virtue.
  One of my most prized possessions at home is a statue of Iwo. It is a 
smaller version of the Iwo statue that is over on the edge of Arlington 
Cemetery. It is not just a curiosity stand type statue you would buy 
from one of the souvenir stands here in Washington. When I had been on 
a space flight many years later, Felix de Weldon, the sculptor who 
designed the Iwo statue--it was his concept--was doing a bust of me 
later on and we become friends. He had one of his first working models 
that he had, from which he designed the Iwo statue. It is a one-tenth 
scale model, exact. If you took a picture of it at the right angle, I 
doubt that you could tell the difference between that and the big Iwo 
statue. It is a one-tenth scale model. Because I had been in the Marine 
Corps, he wanted me to have that. I did not want to take it. I thought 
it should go to the Smithsonian or Marine Headquarters or someplace. He 
wanted me to have it, so I finally took it. It is one of my most prized 
possessions at home. I am sure 1 day it will wind up exactly there, in 
the Smithsonian or Marine Headquarters. Every time I see that statue at 
home, I am reminded of that visit to Iwo and what it must have been 
like to be there that day when uncommon valor was such a common virtue.
  Mr. ROBB addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. ROBB. Mr. President, I had not planned to speak this afternoon at 
all. As a matter of fact, I was just about to part from this Chamber 
when the senior Senator from Arkansas asked for the floor. I knew he 
was going to recite a few words that had been prepared officially by 
the Marine Corps, and it was my privilege to deliver another as a part 
of that series earlier this week.
  I would like to join with all of the colleagues here on the floor, 
and the many who have been fortunate to be in this Chamber at this 
particular moment, and say thank you, Marine Dale Bumpers, for 
reminding us for a few minutes what is important in life.
  I could not help but be drawn back into my own experience. I was, at 
the time of Iwo Jima, a young boy starting school. But I suspect, if I 
am honest, I would acknowledge that Iwo Jima probably had a lot to do 
with my decision to join the Marine Corps. I certainly, like many 
others, benefited from the heroism that was demonstrated in that 
particular battle along that tiny eight-square-mile island. And even 
Dale Bumpers' description of having talked to those who had examined 
the photographs and other remains of the enemy that they had taken 
during the course of the battle rings very true to me in a different 
conflict later on. But it still happens and you still have that very 
personal gut-wrenching feeling that there are human beings on both 
sides of those 
 [[Page S2735]] equations that are not necessarily involved in the 
political struggles that are involved.
  I simply join in saying thank you to my fellow marines here and 
elsewhere for the legacy that they left to all of us who served later. 
Those immortal words ring through to all of us. As my friend, John 
Glenn, talked about his statue, I have a much smaller and much less 
prestigious copy that sits on the front of my desk in my office to 
which I will return shortly, which
 but reminds me of a time when something very important in our history 
occurred, just 50 years ago.

  And for those of you who were fortunate enough to be present in the 
Chamber today, something important in this Chamber occurred, and it is 
all too rare that we have a feeling where we have been truly moved by a 
few words. I would have to say that our distinguished friend from 
Arkansas has a disproportionate number of those moments to his credit.
  In any event, may I join colleagues who are here celebrating that 
uncommon valor that occurred some 50 years ago and ask others around 
the country to stop for just a minute or two to think about the 
consequence of the risks and the sacrifices they made in terms of the 
quality of life that remains today.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. FORD addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky.
  Mr. FORD. Mr. President, I have been sitting here and listening, and 
I think the distinguished Senator from Virginia has hit the same note 
that I have been feeling--a little bit emotional; rightly so; 
beautiful--because I could hear the ``Star Spangled Banner'' in every 
voice. I could hear the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag in every 
voice. I could hear and feel the tide, why this country is so great and 
what this institution is.
  And I could hear the roll being called here in the Senate--Senator 
Chafee, Senator Bumpers, Senator Glenn, Senator Heflin, Senator Robb--
you go on through. They may have different opinions about the issues on 
the Senate floor, but none--none--of those would take a step back from 
the defense of this country and the attempt to do what is right. And it 
goes across the aisle.
  So I do not know. I hope there are a lot of people watching tonight 
so they could have heard my long and good friend from Arkansas, Senator 
Bumpers, and listen to John Glenn and to feel it, and listen to Howell 
Heflin.
  Why was he back in the States? He was wounded.
  And they said those who have experienced war, as some of us in this 
Chamber have, are those most opposed to it.
  And so, I thank all of you. I hope I can get a tape of this. I want 
my grandkids to see it, because it has been now 50-some-odd years. I 
was 19. I guess you were about the same age. We were all about the same 
age. And we were called on.
  Oh, you may fuss and fume at me about my political stance. You may 
fuss and fume at the others about their political stance, but do not 
doubt their courage or their loyalty to this country.
  So this occasion was very beautiful. I am pleased that Senator 
Bumpers, my good and loyal friend, was able to get up tonight and 
remind us and shake us back to the very essence and roots of why we are 
in this Chamber and why we try our best to do what is good for the 
children.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, if nobody else wishes to speak, let me 
just follow up on what Senator Ford has said and perhaps we can get 
back on the matter we are supposed to be debating. This has nothing to 
do with the Marine Corps. It has to do with another point I want to 
make.
  Several of us went to Europe on June 6. We went to Anzio in Italy 
before we went to Utah and Omaha Beaches. And I was really not prepared 
for the experience. Anzio, a battle I remembered well was memorialized 
by roughly 10,000 white crosses and Stars of David in the cemetery 
there. We were there on June 4.
  We went then to Utah Beach and Omaha Beach on June 6th. And behind 
each beach there were roughly 10,000 graves, Stars of David and 
crosses. Each one of those represented a knock on the door. ``We regret 
to inform you your son, your husband, your brother has been killed in 
action.'' That was one of the most traumatic things I ever experienced.
  President Clinton, in one of the cemeteries was talking to a man. The 
man said, ``This man who lies under this cross saved my life. He went 
out on a patrol that I was supposed to go on. I had been doing it every 
night. He said, ``No, you stay. I'm going tonight.''
  ``And I let him go.''
  That same man asked the President, ``Do you know Clayton Little?''
  And President Clinton said, ``Know him? I should say so. He served in 
the legislature, both when Senator Bumpers was Governor of Arkansas and 
when I was Governor of Arkansas. He was one of the finest men I ever 
knew.''
  The man said, ``He was one of the best friends I ever had. He was by 
my side during the entire battle at Anzio.''
  But like this moment, I say to the people of this body that we ought 
to do this more often--stop and reflect on what is really important in 
our lives and in this country.
  I looked at all those graves, and I thought of the unbelievable 
trauma so many families had experienced as a result of each one of 
them. And I began to think about the things we say and talk about in 
this Chamber. And so much of it is not very important. And when you get 
caught up in the experience I had, you begin to get your priorities a 
little straighter. It is like a cancer diagnosis. You begin to realize 
what is important and what is not.
  But the point I want to close on, Mr. President, as Senator Ford has 
said very well, nobody should ever question the loyalty or the 
patriotism of anybody. I deplore that. We are all loyal Americans. We 
are here debating because we have serious policy disagreements, but we 
really agree on a lot more than we disagree on.
  Somebody came up to me and said, ``You know, today's generation would 
never bare their chest to those German machine guns on those beaches. 
They'd never get them out of those landing craft to walk up a beach, 
unprotected, baring their chest to German machine guns.''
  And I said, ``Of course they would.''
  They thought the same thing about our generation. And I believe that 
todays generation, if our liberties were at stake, would do the same 
thing we did.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. BIDEN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, this is not a very propitious time for me 
to send an amendment to the desk.
  Let me, while Senator Bumpers is still here, say one thing to Senator 
Bumpers.
  I was with Senator Bumpers and others on the 50th anniversary of D-
Day on those beaches, including down in Italy in Anzio.
  I was 2 years old when the people of Dale's generation, although I do 
not feel like he is a different generation than me --and I mean that 
sincerely, and I do not--until I stood on those beaches.
  I came home and said something to my father that I never said before. 
My father was not on any one of those beaches. As I stood there and 
watched Senator Heflin, Senator Bumpers, Senator Hollings and Senator 
Glenn and others with whom I was attending these ceremonies, and the 
thousands of veterans who were there, I marveled at one thing.
  Being a U.S. Senator for 22 years, I have been to a lot of veterans' 
events. I did not see one bit of revelry. I only saw reverence. I 
watched these men and their counterparts--civilians--walk out on those 
beaches--which seemed to be 20 miles wide--in solitude. There were 
10,000 individuals there, all lost in their own memories.
  It impressed me in a strange way, I say to my friend from Arkansas. 
Here is what I told my dad. I came back with such a sense of awe. As a 
student of history, thinking I was a pretty smart, well-educated guy, 
until you stand on those beaches. Now I understand why they all came in 
at midtide. I am assuming it was equally as bad or worse at Iwo Jima, 
and I have never been there.
  I not only had a sense of awe and pride in my father's generation and 
a renewed respect for that generation, 
 [[Page S2736]] but I had an incredible sense of envy, almost a feeling 
of anger. John Kerry is a veteran. John was a decorated veteran in 
Vietnam. My generation went to war in Vietnam without the benefit that 
your generation had.
  When you stood there on the beaches of Iwo Jima, or deciding whether 
or not to get out of the landing craft on Omaha Beach, you knew, had 
you failed, all of humanity would have suffered. There was no question 
that the fate of mankind hung in the balance. Had you not prevailed, 
your wives, mothers, and children would have lived under an oppression 
unlike anything that had been seen in the previous two centuries.
  When John Kerry rode down some god-awful river in Vietnam, he did not 
know who the hell he was after, was not quite sure why he was there, 
did not have any idea anymore than my friend from Virginia had as to 
who might be shooting at him, and I suspect never had the absolute 
certainty that what they were doing, as difficult as it was, was 
something that, beyond question, had to be done.
  I understand my dad's generation better, having been there, because 
now I understand why guys like my dad--and God, it seems ridiculous to 
talk to you as if you were my dad's age because I have worked with you 
all my professional life--why you have such an incredible sense of 
optimism. Why on either side of the aisle, whether it is you or John 
Chafee or whomever it is, have this unabating notion that we can, in 
fact, get things done.
  I look at my generation and those who are younger, and I am not 
nearly as surprised as to why they are as confused as they are about 
the ability, and not even thinking about it in your generation, why 
they wonder whether or not this institution makes any sense, whether or 
not the system works.
  It seems to me you not only did something incredibly courageous--and 
I see Dan Inouye, and nobody in this whole body have I ever felt closer 
to than Dan Inouye, and he knows I am not just saying that. Here is a 
guy, he goes and loses his arm. He should have gotten the Medal of 
Honor, in my view, if you read about his exploits. And he acts like he 
was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He acts like not a single 
thing ever happened to him in his life that was difficult. He acts like 
the world is just a cupcake, and we can make it great for everybody.
  It is an incredible, incredible thing that your generation has passed 
on. I do not know how it gets renewed. But I know one thing: More 
people should hear you talk about it. More people should go and stand 
on Omaha Beach or go to Iwo Jima or go up into the hills in Italy where 
these guys--Bob Dole and others--got stopped.
  I know it sounds corny, but I defy anybody of any generation to have 
been there on D-Day and not walk away with a deeper understanding of 
why your generation has done so much for this country and why other 
generations have been so uncertain about what they can do. The biggest 
thing it does, it seems to me, is hopefully remind people in this era 
of bitter politics, of political invective, of the mindless things that 
are being said on the left and the right, of the personal 
characterization of political motivation of whatever anybody does, of 
the era of 30-second personal attacks on anybody that disagrees with 
you, you must be un-American or must be less dedicated than whomever it 
is they are arguing with.
  I hope they understand that, as corny as it sounds, the women and men 
who served in this body--and I have been here for 22 years--I have not 
met a one, I have not met a one in either political party when they 
walk out of here and get in their car at night or go down to the train 
station like I do and look in the rear view mirror, they see that 
Capitol dome, do not still get a chill.
  I noticed people when we were over there on D-Day, Dale, there was 
not anybody watching us. Everybody was the same. I watch people when 
they play the ``Star Spangled Banner.'' There was not any hometown 
crowd. I watched peoples' eyes mist and people got goosebumps. I know 
it is not in vogue to say those things, and probably an editorial will 
say how corny we were today--or I know I was.
  The best thing that can happen in this sick political atmosphere we 
find ourselves in, is for more people to understand, whether it is the 
Rush Limbaughs of the world or a left-wing version of Rush Limbaugh on 
the air who makes everything personal about what people do, there is so 
much more that we agree on in this Chamber than we disagree on. There 
is so much more that your generation did for this Nation than you 
understand and appreciate, if I can say so, so much more.
  But you had something that I think we are all still searching for, 
and that is the absolute certainty that what we were undertaking needed 
to be done, was noble, was moral, was necessary, and was right. I think 
that is what everybody is searching for. You paid a horrible price for 
having found it in your generation, but having found it and survived 
it, you made this country something that it never had been, because of 
the growth and the optimism and the absolute enthusiasm you all brought 
back from having done what you did and literally saved the world for 
democracy.
  I want to tell you I had not planned on speaking on it at all, but my 
respect for my father has always been great. My respect for his 
generation and my mother's, as well.
  I end with one little story. I was with you, and we split up after 
the President spoke. I went up to the cemetery. I was walking around 
the cemetery, just kind of in a daze. My wife and I--my wife was not 
even born during any portion of World War II -- were looking at the 
crosses, just wandering through, and this guy was being pushed in a 
wheelchair by his two sons. And I am looking at a grave marker. I did 
not even see him. And he said, ``Is that you, Senator Biden?'' And I 
turned around. I did not know the fellow. He was from Indiana. I turned 
to him and I was like most of us were, somewhat emotional about what we 
just observed. And I said, ``Thank you for what you did.'' And he said, 
``Don't thank me, thank my wife.'' And I turned around, and his wife 
was not with him. And I said, ``Thank your wife?'' I said, ``Why, 
sir?''
  He said, ``My wife did as much to make sure I could get on that 
landing craft and get here because she made it. She made it at home. 
She produced the reason we were able to win, because of the industrial 
might of the people we left behind to produce and outproduce the 
Germans.''
  But it was typical. Here is a guy going through a graveyard where his 
friends are buried. I compliment him and he tells me to thank his 
deceased wife who made the landing craft.
  I sure as heck hope there is some way we can rekindle that kind of 
notion of sense of duty, sense of responsibility, sense of shared glory 
that seems to be missing so much in this country today. And I hope in 
God's name we can do without another war. But I want to compliment you 
all.

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