[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 34 (Thursday, February 23, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H2156]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


       THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO SACRIFICED 50 YEARS AGO AT IWO JIMA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Largent). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Barr] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, when I entered these hallways just a short 
time ago to deliver a speech on something that I thought was mighty 
important and, indeed, it is, I sat here for a few moments and listened 
to the words of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle harken me and 
those of us here and those of us in the listening audience back 50 
years, and suddenly the matter of loans and loan guarantees to Mexico, 
as important as they are, and suddenly, as important as the work that I 
had the honor of performing today in the Committee on the Judiciary on 
tort reform, as important as that work is, suddenly paled in comparison 
when I listened to the words of the brave men here this evening talk 
about what happened on a sandy, salty, bloody beach 50 years ago.
  And as I sat here in this great Chamber, I could almost smell the 
diesel fuel from the landing craft, smell the salty air, feel the 
crunch of the sand under my feet and hear the cries of the brave men 
who landed on Iwo Jima that day and who fought inch by inch, foot by 
foot, yard by yard up through to Mount Suribachi.
  And I think, Mr. Speaker, how important it really is that we not 
forget those lessons, that we not forget those accounts, that we not 
forget the great history of the U.S. Marine Corps and what those men 
fought for, and I think, Mr. Speaker, that it is extremely important 
that through their words such as those we heard here this evening, 
through their eloquence such as we heard here this evening, through 
their loyalty, we must be ever mindful of the real purposes that we 
serve here, and that is to protect freedom in all its forms for all 
Americans, because if we do not and if we lose sight of that great 
ideal, then they will, indeed, have died in vain, they will, indeed, 
have suffered in vain, and if we do that, if we fail to remember that 
legacy, those values, those ideals, that when I travel back to my home 
State of Georgia and I see such tremendous patriots as Gen. Raymond 
Davis, a Marine, ever and always a Marine, who won the U.S. Medal of 
Honor, when I see good friends of mine back in Georgia like Clark 
Steel, a Marine, always a Marine, and when I sit here right now and I 
look in the eyes of Robert Dornan, such a tremendous patriot and 
fighter for this country, I could not continue to do that if I were not 
reminded and if I did not continue, as I do now, to feel in my heart 
and my mind the tremendous admiration for those men, those Marines, 
those Americans who fought on those bloody beaches and those rocky 
slopes 50 years ago.
  To them I say, ``Thank you, thank you, and we will carry on in these 
halls so that we never have to go through what you went through for us 
50 years ago.''


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