[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 45 (Friday, March 10, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H3034-H3041]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                  THE GREATEST BATTLE OF WORLD WAR II

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentleman from California [Mr. Dornan] is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, as I said a few moments ago in my 1-minute 
speech, I would be spending the better part of this next hour on 
America's most costly battle, the one that Winston Churchill said was 
the greatest battle in American history, the campaign in the Ardennes 
Forest of Europe. Churchill was correct. If we go by ``killed in action 
and wounded in action,'' his words were true. His exact words were, 
``This is undoubtedly the greatest battle of the war, and will, I 
believe, be regarded as an ever famous American victory.''
  Before I do that, it is my desire, Mr. Speaker, to read slowly an 
article from the Washington Post on Wednesday that I believe is the 
great moral battle of our time. The unending death total of almost 
4,500 Americans in their mother's wombs every single day. Still, a 
million and a half abortions every year. It is a death toll that is way 
past 30 million just since the Roe versus Wade decision, one of the 
most evil decisions by a court in all of recorded history, a decision 
based on a total lie.
  Norma McCovey, who was named Jane Roe as her nom de guerre, her war 
title, war against the preborn, never did have an abortion. She tried 
to kill all three of her daughters that are still estranged from her. 
They are all in their middle twenties to early thirties now, and they 
are all saying when their mother is willing to apologize for having 
tried to kill them then they will reconcile with her.
  She is on the road, not a very high IQ lady, on the road for Planned 
Parenthood and NARAL and other ferociously pro-abortion groups. And she 
is a sad figure, because she never was raped. And the whole case in 
Texas by a very poorly prepared attorney general of Texas was based on 
a lie. She never was raped, I repeat, never did abort one of her three 
pregnancies. The three daughters live to this day. And on that lie, we 
did something as loathsome as keeping about four million Americans 
enslaved, Americans of African heritage, right up through the bloodiest 
conflict that America has ever known, 618,000 dead from all the 
American States on both sides, in a Nation that, including the non-free 
Americans, was only about 37 or 38 million people. And we killed off in 
their child bearing years through disease and combat, combat far less 
than those that died of diseases, 618,000 Americans. And here we are 
doubling that total every year with abortion alone.

                              {time}  1330

  This article is by a friend of mine who is an excellent actor. You 
can see him doing many commercials in any given year. He is a good 
character actor, but beyond that he teaches law at Pepperdine and he is 
an excellent philosopher, an observant individual, Benjamin J. Stein. 
And here is what he writes in Wednesday's Washington Post, one of 
America's three big liberal papers of record. The title of Ben's 
article is ``Deep Sixed by the GOP.''
  ```A bureaucrat is a Democrat who has a job that a Republican wants.' 
So said Eleanor Roosevelt in 1946 when she was helping to campaign 
against the Republican tide in Congress. It didn't help, but it made a 
valid point. There's no particular pride in coining phrases and slogans 
and in posturing after moral superiority if all you really want is a 
job,'' that someone else has, ``and the pose of moral superiority is 
your pitch.''
  ``This comes to mind because of a recent spate of back pedaling among 
Republicans about the right-to-life issue. From what I hear,'' says Ben 
Stein, ``it's coming from across the board, in Congress and 
elsewhere,'' across our land, ``and there is not a
 single GOP Presidential hopeful at this point who is in favor of a 
right-to-life amendment to the Constitution or of repealing Roe versus 
Wade in any way.''

  I might put in an important footnote at that point, Mr. Speaker. This 
Member, who aspires to the greatest office in this land or any other, I 
not only have a right-to-life amendment, and have had in every one of 
nine Congresses that I have been here, but I have always been for 
repealing Roe versus Wade, a repeal of the Supreme Court decision of 
infamous and heinous ill repute that was based on a lie.
  And the lawyer, Sarah Weddington of Texas, knew it was a lie and told 
her client Norma McCovey, Jane Roe, to continue lying. She wasn't raped 
and has never been subjected to an abortion.
  Back to Ben Stein. Now to some of us, abortion is the preeminent 
moral issue of the century. It's not a medical 
[[Page H3035]] procedure of moral neutrality. It's not a sad duty that 
conflicted mothers sometimes have to do. It's the immoral taking of a 
life, not very different from homicide.
  ``Since it's done by doctors and by mothers, it's particularly 
hypocritical since it's the taking of totally helpless life, it's the 
breaking of the most sacred trust imaginable--the implicit pledge by 
parents to take care of their children, or at least not to murder them.
  ``Stopping this riot of immorality is not just another issue like how 
many pages of regulations there should be on handling chicken by-
products. It's not an issue about which learned people differ--but none 
considers either position immoral--like the balanced budget amendment. 
It's the bedrock test for many of us of whether we can consider 
ourselves a moral people. It's as vital for our time as abolitionism 
was for the America of a century and a half ago. From it flow all other 
considerations of how much importance we place on human life.
  ``Obviously, not everyone agrees with us about this issue. There are 
some politicians, like Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein,'' both of 
California, ``who have always opposed right to life and tried to make 
the case for abortion. That's not fine, but at least it's 
understandable. There is some consistency there, and although it's 
consistency for a wicked principle, it's understandable.
  ``What's more troublesome right now is this screaming fact: The 
Republicans ran under the right-to-life banner. They gave money to 
right-to-life to turn out the pro-life vote. They got a stunningly high 
percentage of the right-to-life vote.''
  I might add another footnote here. Given the preponderance of people 
of my heritage in the other party, and a similar heritage to an Irish 
heritage, that of Italian-American ancestry, Polish-American ancestry, 
Lithuanian-American ancestry, French-American ancestry, there is a 
strong representation still of what we loosely call in politics, blue 
collar or Reagan Democrats in the other party. And they came over to 
the Republican vote on November 8, 1994, in more massive numbers than 
they ever had before, even in larger numbers than they did to elect 
Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984.
  So it is fair to say we got a stunningly high percentage of the 
right-to-life vote, particularly thanks to the former Governor of 
Pennsylvania, Robert Casey, a large number of Democrat right-to-life 
voters.
  ``It's not an exaggeration to say the right-to-life vote put the 
Republicans in power in Congress,'' in this 104th Congress.
  ``Seemingly, now that the GOP is in the jobs that the Democrats had, 
the right-to-life voters can be safely cast aside. (`Where else do they 
have to go?' as a Republican strategist here said to me. `We aren't 
going to lose them to Hillary Clinton').
  ``There will be some minimal bows to not using taxpayer money to pay 
for abortions, but the Federal Government will not use its power to 
hinder privately paid abortions. (Even though the Federal Government 
pokes its snout into the nongovernment sector minute by minute, person-
by-person all across America.)
  ``The notion here, as I,'' Ben Stein, ``keep reading, is that 
abortion is a divisive issue, the kind of issue that gets people angry, 
that splits the party and that loses elections if it's pressed.
  ``Or, to put it another way, maybe abortion is the kind of issue that 
prevents a Republican from getting a job that a Democrat has.'' There 
is that Eleanor Roosevelt quote again. ``But wait a minute: If it's 
true that the GOP ran on a pose of moral superiority, got elected on 
that pose and is now going to deep six the issue it posed on so as to 
go on to further electoral triumphs, don't we have a word for that?
 Isn't the word hypocrisy. Isn't it the most painful kind of 
hypocrisy--hypocrisy about a moral issue that keeps people up at night, 
that makes people go to jail for what they believe?

  And I know my friend Ben is speaking here of people who demonstrate 
peacefully or at least nonviolently; not the two assassins or the 
midnight cowardly bomber. He is speaking about nuns and priests and 
ministers and rabbis and humble mothers and young kids who put it on 
the line before we tried to restrict the peaceful right to assemble or 
the freedom of speech of this one--this one human and civil rights 
movement in the 216-year history of our country.
  Only the pro-life movement is subjected to this bullying that used to 
go on in this Chamber and that I do believe came to a sreeching halt 
November 8.
  Back to Ben Stein's closing two paragraphs: ``Somehow, I don't think 
that all of the cutting of the budget, reduction of taxes and building 
up of the military will wipe away the stain. The GOP has seemingly just 
used the most morally sensitive issue of the century as a ploy to get 
votes. When it looks as if the issue might lose an election, even if 
the pledges were unequivocal, the issue and the faithful get dumped. 
It's frighteningly cynical.
  ``But now we know. Get the votes and run. A bureaucrat is a Democrat 
who has a job that a Republican wants. That, apparently, is the bottom 
line.''
  Signature by Benjamin J. Stein, a writer and actor in Los Angeles, a 
teacher of law at Pepperdine University.
  Well, I would hope that my party will show more courage and more 
principle than what Mr. Stein suspects here, Mr. Speaker. And after we 
have our first pro-life debate and our pro-life vote, after the largest 
number of Roman Catholics to ever serve in this body waive the 
scriptural admonition, what does it profit a person to gain the whole 
world and lose their immortal soul, that some Roman Catholics who 
regularly vote for abortion here, that they will come home to their 
Christian faith and they will realize that they can be in the majority 
now. An easy call. That they can just give us a supermajority on 
stopping this unbelievable death toll of abortion in our fair, 
beautiful land, and that they will have a chance to reconcile 
themselves with their faith. That they no longer have to posture that 
they know more than Mother Teresa, more than the Pope in Rome, more 
than every bishop in this country--no matter how flaky they are on 
liberalism or how flaky they are on homosexuality--every bishop in this 
country and most protestant bishops, all Jewish rabbis of orthodox 
faith closest to the land of the book that we all call the holy land, 
that maybe there will be a reconciliation and a coming home before that 
first vote before people lock themselves into what is, to quote Ben, a 
screaming denial of decency and a denial of their faith. Let's see what 
happens in the 104th Congress.
  Now, I have been joined by a friend of mine who can almost ask me 
anything. But I was now about to spend the rest of this hour on the 
Battle of the Bulge. This man has probably seen more combat, given the 
retirement rate, than anybody in this Chamber; has shot down five of 
the enemy's best MIG fighters and was shot down himself in the process 
and plucked out of the sea by rescue forces before the enemy had a 
chance to torture him. And this is the kind of guy I think they would 
have preferred to torture to death, rather than let him come home and 
run for Congress, Duke Cunningham.
  And my dear colleague, I see a note from you that you want to take 
from my ration on the Battle of the Bulge 5 minutes for what subject?
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Children's Nutrition Program.
  Mr. DORNAN. Children alive today who are alive because of those 
heroes at the Battle of the Bulge and the drive across the Rhine which 
started 50 years ago on the 7th of March, a few days ago.
  I was also going to mention that this is day 20 of the 36 days of our 
Marine Corps taking their worst casualties ever, almost 6,800 others 
dying on the island of Iwo Jima. They had reached the north shore 
yesterday and they still had 16 vicious days to go.
  I will tell you what I will do. Children's nutrition is so important, 
and you are an expert, let me set the scene for my words on the Battle 
of the Bulge by telling everybody what happened 50 years ago today, 
Duke,  and then I will give you those 5 minutes carved right out of the 
middle of what I hope is commanding the attention of people.
  Duke, what I said in the 1-minute, and I meant to say at the 
beginning of this, I am begging anybody listening to 
[[Page H3036]] the sound of my voice and to this distinguished Chamber 
and we have got--I can't identify them by name, but we have about, look 
at that, 250, make 300 young Americans, generation-X folks chasing the 
baby-boomers into what I hope will be a successful life for every one 
of them.
  I am begging them, anybody listening, to call a friend, a friend that 
may be watching the O.J. Simpson trial--an athletic hero gone sour, but 
never was asked to lay his life on the line for his country, as you 
were and as I offered to do in peacetime as a combat-ready, trained 
fighter pilot.
  Call a friend, tell them to take a break from the O.J. Simpson trial. 
Turn on C-SPAN and watch what you have to say on child nutrition and 
watch what I have to say about the heroes of Iwo Jima, the crossing of 
the Rhine, and the ones that I just didn't get an opportunity to talk 
about with our reorganization and rebirth of the American revolution 
here the last couple of months, what I learned in Europe in December 
last, this last Christmas week, about the Battle of the Bulge.
  But let me set the scene and then I will yield to you, Mr. 
Cunningham. March 10, 1945, 50 years ago today--I am going to set the 
scene:
  I have here the words of the 40th President of the United States, 
Ronald Reagan. And this is why I am doing this. Ronald Reagan, in his 
goodbye speech as President of the United States, 8 wonderful years, 9 
days before George Bush was sworn in as our 41st President, President 
Reagan on all three major networks and CNN said goodbye to his fellow 
countrymen.
  It is a beautiful speech, truly beautiful. I have put it into the 
Record several times. But at the end of his speech, in the last few 
paragraphs, he asked us to reflect upon the importance of the history 
of our great and fair land.
  He said, and these are his exact words: ``We've got to teach history 
based not on what's in fashion, but on what's important--why the 
Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds 
over Tokyo meant. You know, 4 years ago, on the 40th anniversary of D-
day,'' this is the 51st anniversary coming up, ``I read a letter from a 
young women writing to her late father, who'd fought on Omaha Beach. 
Her name was Lisa Zanatta Henn, and she said, `We will always remember, 
we will never forget what the boys of Normandy did.'''
  President Reagan goes on to talk about helping her keep her word and 
he closes his goodbye to the country this way. ``Let me offer lesson 
number one about America: All great change in America begins at the 
dinner table. So, tomorrow night in the kitchen I hope the talking 
begins. And children, if your parents haven't been teaching you what it 
means to be an American, let 'em know and nail 'em on it. That would be 
a very American thing to do.''
  He goes on to talk about what he meant about ``a shining city upon a 
hill,'' talks about the early Pilgrims, early freedom men, referring 
back to the stirring moments in his early speech where he recounted a 
favorite story of his of Vietnamese boat people seeking freedom, people 
we had betrayed and left behind in Vietnam to the cruel tortures and 
executions of their Communist masters from Hanoi, the conquerers who 
still rule there.
  And this young Vietnamese boy, now an American citizen somewhere in 
the country, maybe listening to my voice right this afternoon, he 
yelled up at one of our rescue ships, ``Hello,'' to this young sailor, 
``hello, freedom man.''
  So President Reagan is referring back to his beautiful freedom man 
story and he talks about what his vision of an American city on a hill 
is. And then he says about himself, ``We've done our part. And as I 
walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of 
the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for 8 years 
did the work that brought America back. My friends: We did it. We 
weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the cities 
stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in 
all, not bad, not bad at all.
  ``And so goodbye, God bless you and God bless the United States of 
America.''
  That was 9:02 p.m. from the Oval Office, January 11, 1989. Remember 
those words: Children, if your parents haven't been teaching you what 
if means to be an American, let 'em know. Nail 'em on it. That would be 
a very American thing to do at your kitchen table.
  Now, set the scene. March 10, 50 years ago. The allies complete the 
Rhineland campaign, on the west side of Europe's greatest river, the 
Rhine. The American 1st Army, 3rd Army, 9th Army, and the Canadian 1st 
Army are lined up across a 140-mile stretch of the Rhine.
  Within a few days from now, General Patton is across the Rhine. A few 
more days after that, at the end of March, General Alexander Patch is 
across the Rhine. But at this moment, 50 years ago, it was day 3 of the 
Remagen bridgehead crossing at the Ludendorf Bridge. A 2-month 
offensive leading up to this crossing of the Rhine had cost us 63,000 
Allied casualties.
  Bob Michel was here yesterday, our former minority leader, I said, 
Bob, 50 years ago today, March 9, where were you? He stopped and said, 
``In the hospital recovering from my wounds of a few weeks ago.'' And 
he said, ``Back getting ready to go back into combat.''
  But the Germans, a Christian nation composed of basically Roman 
Catholics and Lutherans, how did they ever get these Lutheran and 
Catholic kids to run those concentration camps or to murder our 
prisoners at Malmedy, the sacred ground that I walked across last 
Christmas week?
  The Germans have lost 250,000, including 150,000 very eager-to-
surrender young POW's and older men of the Home Guard. American combat 
engineers have now completed two bridges across the Rhine next to the
 shakey Remagen Bridge, which was to fall in a few days killing 14 of 
our heroic engineers trying to hold on to the railroad bridge while we 
build the two-pontoon bridge alongside.

  The 9th ``Varsity'' Division, the 78th ``Lighting'' Division, the 
99th ``Checkerboard'' Division have all joined the 9th ``Phantom'' 
Armor Division to expand the 1st Army's east bank foothold across the 
Rhine in Germany proper.
  The Germans are trying to corral the bridgehead with 12 divisions--we 
are still badly outnumbered--including two of the infamous Panzer 
divisions. Hitler has named Kesseling, a professional field marshal, to 
replace Gerd von Rundstedt who he fired 3 days ago once we got across 
the river.
  I already mentioned what was happening in Iwo Jima. General McArthur 
with the United States Army in the southern Philippines has the 41st 
``Sunset'' Division establishing a beachhead on Mindanao's Zamboanga 
Peninsula; 150,000 Filipinos were slaughtered. Manila is just rubble 
and the Japanese commander, Hama, will be executed after the war 
because this slaughter took place under him.
  That is setting the scene for me to go back to the veterans of the 
Rhineland campaign and those that crossed the Rhine that earned their 
place in American history in terrible snowstorms 50 years ago last 
December and this January at the Battle of the Bulge, which I will do 
after my friend Duke Cunningham, brings us up to to date and informs us 
what is truly taking place about children's nutrition.
  It is all yours, Mr. Cunningham.


                     children's Nutrition Programs

  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I really appreciate my 
friend from California, Bob Dornan, yielding the time. I tried to make 
it over for the 5 minutes and he has been gracious enough to extend me 
the privilege to interrupt his special order.
  And I first would like to say it is always good to be back with Tiger 
Flight. As always Bob Dornan has more knowledge on military history 
than the Smithsonian Museum has. And if you notice, he does not do it 
from paperwork; he does it from memory. And, Bob, I would like to 
especially thank you.
  You know, I do not know how to counter untruths that are spoken on 
this House floor, and I think one of the most frustrating thing for 
Members is to hear the daily rhetoric that goes on on this House floor 
that are untruths, that are not the truth. And I think who we hurt the 
most and how many Members on the other side hurt the most are our pages 
and our youngsters and the people that watch.
  [[Page H3037]] I listened and talked to some of the Democratic pages 
and also to the Republican pages and some of them came back to me and 
said, Congressman Cunningham, we know that they are saying children's 
nutrition, cutting children's nutrition programs is not right. We are 
Democrats but we were brought up not to tell untruths. And I do not 
know why our side of the aisle is doing it, but what can you do to show 
them the actual facts and that is why I have come today.
  I am the chairman of the subcommittee that went over and looked at 
children's nutrition programs. I met with the Speaker, with the 
Republican Governors, and they said there are 366 welfare programs in 
existence. All 366 of those welfare programs have personnel, they have 
facilities, they have paperwork requirements. They have reporting data 
that school teachers and principals and superintendents have to deal 
with every day, a stack this high.
  And they all intertwine and they cover different
   folks. But yet we have many people applying for various ones of the 
366 and we cannot track who they are. The system has gone amuck. And 
just take a look at our welfare system today.

  It is a disaster and it needs to be fixed. And this is a choice of 
allowing our children in the future to maintain in their lifetime and 
have a debt ceiling on their lives of $180,000 that they would pay in 
taxes just for the interest on the debt.
  Now, the question is, are we doing that on the backs of the children? 
Are we taking food out of children's mouths? The answer is, of course 
not.
  In the program what I did is took a look, and under H.R. 4, the plan 
was to take all of the block grants and put them in the welfare block 
grant. After consultations with my own school districts in San Diego, 
consultation with different groups that came in and talked to me in the 
food services, I determined, as well as Chairman Goodling, that if we 
did that we would actually hurt children's nutrition programs. So being 
the chairman of the committee, I personally removed the child breakfast 
and the child lunch programs from the overall welfare block grant. I 
separated them.
  There is another program that works very, very well to help, and you 
can tie an economic model on both of these programs. And that is the 
Women, Infants, and Children's Program, called WIC. They work very 
well. And in this body, both Republicans and Democrats, on a bipartisan 
basis, have supported both the school-based and the family-based 
program of WIC. And if we would have put them into that block grant, it 
would have damaged both of them.
  I hear time after time after time again from the other side of the 
aisle that we are cutting those programs. Well, Mr. Speaker, I would 
like to speak to that very issue. Because instead of cutting the 
program, I protected them. I separated them in a block grant instead of 
cutting them.
  There were many people that came back to this Congress, especially 
our freshmen, and said, We came back to cut, we want to cut down and we 
want to work on the deficit, and we want to cut the program. And they 
wanted not to go to zero growth, but to actually cut into it by 5 
percent.
  I went to Chairman Goodling, and I said, Mr. Chairman, if that 
feeling prevails, I will resign my chairmanship of early childhood 
education. Because if we do that, again, we will damage children's 
nutrition programs. It meant that much to protect programs that work.
  Are we cutting? Take a look at the WIC Program itself. This is what 
we, Mr. Speaker, in 1995, this year, we spent $3.47 billion on the 
Women, Infants, and Children's Program. In the year 2000, we spend 
$4.246 billion. And if you look at next year, from $3.4 we go to $3.7 
billion. That is the Women, Infants, and Children's Program.
  If you take a look at the school-based program, this year we spent 
$4.5 billion on our children and our School Lunch Programs. Next year, 
we spend $4.7 billion. And every year we increase it by more than $200 
million a year. Instead of cutting it, I arranged to add dollars in 
that every single year and protect those programs.
                              {time}  1400

  What about the protection of them? Each State is different. What 
Tommy Thomson's requirements are in Wisconsin may be different from 
what Governor Wilson's requirements are in California or Christy 
Whitman's requirements are in New Jersey. So we gave the Governors the 
remaining 20 percent.
  I mandated that 80 percent of the money in this block grant goes to 
WIC. That 80 percent is represented in this figure. It is more than we 
currently spend every year in WIC.
  In the lunch program, I mandated that 80 percent of the funds go to 
those children that need it most, those below 185 percent poverty 
level, the kids that cannot get a school meal because their parents or 
their economic situation would keep that child from eating. That child, 
if they don't eat, they are not going to learn, and those are the 
children we found are going to end up on the economy on welfare or in 
low-paying jobs. So there is an economic model to it.
  Now, in that 80 percent, there is 20 percent left over. It doesn't 
take a mathematical genius to figure that out. The Governor in each of 
those States has the authority to take that remaining 20 percent and 
if, in their State, they need it because of maybe a recession, whatever 
it is, and put more money into the School Breakfast and School Lunch 
Program, they can. If they need it to go in the WIC, in that separate 
block grant, they can take the 20 percent out that have block grant and 
include it there.
  I yield back.
  Mr. DORNAN. This is just the way you described it, trying to set the 
record straight. Tonight there is a dinner, a Lincoln dinner in the 
county of Washington in Arkansas, and they asked me to tape an 
introduction to the dinner for them because they knew I couldn't get 
down there by tonight because of votes today.
  And I went to Arkansas 2 weeks ago, great American State, 24 Medal of 
Honor winners and hardly the image that comedians have given it since 
the current President was elected. But they had asked me to address one 
of four issues. One was the balanced budget, one was illegal 
immigration. And they said, please help us to tell fellow Republicans 
or conservative Democrats that the Republican Party is--and here is the 
quote--Duke, not taking milk from the mouths of infants, not waging war 
upon poor young American children, and that is what you are setting the 
record straight on here.
  So let me give you another couple of minutes and then I would love to 
join you in a special order next week to continue to set this record 
straight. The flamingest liberals in the dominant media culture are 
running wild with this theme. That it is being picked up in far-left 
Hollywood and all their comedian front men, that we are literally 
trying to hurt women and children, women, infants and children of the 
WIC Programs and others.
  So take another couple minutes, please.
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. We are finally getting through to the press. Here is 
the Washington Post, the Washington Times, the Union. I talked to seven 
of the superintendents in most liberal schools in California, that is 
Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, and they favored the block grant.
  What they would like us to do even is to take the money and not even 
go through the State but get it down to the local LEA, or the local 
school district, so they are in favor of this. It takes out that middle 
bureaucracy.
  What we did cut in all of those thousands of reports, we cut those 
out from the Federal Government, the personnel, the systems that have 
to operate it, to take away the dollars that we are actually trying to 
give. So we not only add dollars, we make it more cost effective so 
that there is more money. They don't have to spend it on those 
administration fees, on the extra people they have to hire to take care 
of their reports. They don't have to go through the reports and send 
them back here to Washington, DC.
  We happen to believe that Government works best closest to the 
people. What about the nutrition standards? Well, Duke, you are going 
to individual States. In the language--I had the language that 
protected the nutrition standards. Mr. Gunderson and Mrs. Roukema said, 
Well, Duke, we still 
[[Page H3038]] don't feel that it is strong enough. It said that the 
latest science would prevail on nutrition standards.
  In a bipartisan, Republican and Democrat, we passed two amendments to 
protect the nutritional standards for the States. And the point is, are 
we cutting children's nutrition programs? Absolutely not. We are adding 
dollars every single year. And what the Democrats are doing, 
politically motivated, in our old budget cycle, if the Democrats, when 
they were in the majority, projected that we would have a million 
dollars in the future for a program, but when it came time around for 
the budget, they would say, Well, we are going to cut $500,000 from 
that. We will reduce the rate of that growth by $500,000. They would 
come back and tell you that they cut the budget in half, by 50 percent.
  Did they? No. They increased it by $500 million, and that is what we 
are doing. GAO projected that they would extend----
  Mr. DORNAN. That is baseline budgeting.
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. At the end of 5 years, the rate would go up to 5.2 
percent. This is at the end of 5 years. We are not even at that yet.
  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. I will finish.
  Mr. DORNAN. Then I want to ask you one question and then back to the 
Bulge 50 years ago. Go ahead.
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. That we are not even out here in 5 years at the year 
2001. We are here now. This 4.5 percent is more than they even 
projected for the growth this year and I have added more money than 
even the GAO baseline, and the political rhetoric, it is an
 attempt to make us look like we are taking the food out of children's 
mouths, and we are not, Mr. Speaker. We are increasing it. We are 
making it cheaper.

  We are giving the States the flexibility and at the same time we are 
going to make it where people that can--my children don't need money to 
go to school. I should have to pay for my child. I am not at a low 
poverty level, and neither should other people that cannot afford it. 
And that way we can bring down over a gradual period of time and 
balance the budget.
  Thank you, and I thank my friend.
  Mr. DORNAN. Let me take you back to your youth to show people that 
you can handle figures accurately.
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. That was a long time ago.
  Mr. DORNAN. That is all right. You were a swimming coach before you 
were a Navy fighter pilot.
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Swimming and football coach at Hinsdale High School.
  Mr. DORNAN. There are a lot of aces in our society. There are ace 
pool players, there are ace marble players in the school yard, wide 
receiver aces that get five touchdowns in a game, but there is only one 
act that puts his life on the line, and that is a fighter ace, and that 
is what you are. Well, I guess tank aces too out there in the sand.
  Let me show people--I will give you a chance to shine a little bit 
here because I love talking with my hands with you. What is the turn 
rate of a Faggot, a MiG-15?
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. It turns at about 19 degrees a second.
  Mr. DORNAN. How about a Fresco, MiG-17?
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Turns at about 20 degrees a second. A Phantom turns 
at about 11 degrees a second.
  Mr. DORNAN. That is why our big Phantom that you were flying, what 
was your back-seater's name? Driscoll?
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Willie Driscoll and we were both Irish.
  Mr. DORNAN. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Where is he today?
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Willie sells real estate for Coldwell Banker and that 
is not a 1-800 number.
  Mr. DORNAN. May his sales increase if we can balance the budget 
around here. So with that big Phantom turning what? What is his turn 
ratio?
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. About 11, 11\1/2\ degrees a second at 420 knots.
  Mr. DORNAN. What is a MiG-17 doing?
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Twenty degrees a second.
  Mr. DORNAN. So you can get inside that much smaller fighter?
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. No. If I get behind him and he turns at 19 to 20 
degrees a second and I turn at 11, he is going to come around and shoot 
me.
  Mr. DORNAN. So he is turning more degrees than you are and a MiG-21 
is what?
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. A MiG-21, depending on the speed, but at his best 
turn rate turns in excess of 20 degrees a second.
  Mr. DORNAN. So that is more of a fair fight. You have got a couple of 
those.
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. He also has more power to go vertical.
  Mr. DORNAN. The reason I brought this out is to show that my friend, 
Duke Cunningham of San Diego, can handle and master figures, and you 
taught this as the squadron CO of the aggressor squadron down there at 
fighter town USA, Miramar. This is not rocket science or shooting down 
MiG's for you to master these nutrition programs. What is the new name 
of the education and labor committee?
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Early Childhood, Youth and Families.
  Mr. DORNAN. Early Childhood, Youth and Families.
  Mr. Cunningham, I am glad you are on that committee. I am glad you 
are doing this work. Let's keep telling the truth here and I want to 
master these figures and not just be the self-appointed House historian 
around here. Thanks, Duke.
  And speaking of history, Mr. Speaker, sometimes when you speak in 
grand terms about the sweep of battle in a war as cataclysmic or as 
massive in numbers of participants as World War II, you lose the 
viewpoint of a foxhole, the mud, one on one, combat situations.
  Here is a book that I came across. I belong to the Military Book 
Club, along with the History Book Club and lots of other political book 
clubs, and I got a little book in the mail a couple of weeks before I 
left for Europe on an Army aircraft with the Secretary of the Army, 
Togo West, and sitting next to me, Harry Canard, as a 29-year-old full 
Eagle, full bird colonel, who was G3 operations for General McAuliffe, 
trapped inside Bastogne, completely surrounded by the best of German 
Panzer units, demanding that they surrender, and of course McAuliffe 
turned to his G3 in the headquarters as they read the German surrender 
demand and McAuliffe says, Well, this is nuts, nuts to them. What 
should I do, Harry?
  General Canard, by the way, took the 1st Cavalry to Vietnam in 1965. 
Quite a man, and young 28-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Lynn still made 
bull in April a couple weeks before his birthday.
  Lt. Col. Harry Canard said, Nuts is good enough, just tell them nuts, 
and that is what their young officers carried to the German side to 
this spit-and-polish Panzer commander, and the German reads the notes. 
I remember Harry saying it to me in German. Pardon my German if you 
speak the language, but he said something like, ``Neutz, Was ist das?'' 
``Negativ-affirmativ,'' and the young captain said, ``It means hell no; 
hell no, we won't surrender.''
  That was probably still fresh in my mind why I used those words in 
the well January 25 while analyzing what aid and comfort to a hostile 
force that we are engaged in combat, what truly constitutes when you 
are in foreign countries. So ``Hell no, hell no, we won't surrender'' 
was embodied in the word ``nuts.''
  Well, here is a small book, very quick and easy read by a young 
private, as he puts it, a private comes of age, the title of the book 
is, ``Inside the Battle of the Bulge,'' published in 1994 by Roscoe C. 
Blunt, Jr. And in the foreword, in dedicating it to his sons, he 
explains that the first version of my book was called, ``A War 
Remembered.'' He made it more specific with ``Inside the Battle of the 
Bulge'' and published it last year to take advantage of the 50th 
anniversary.
  He says, It was written for my sons, Roscoe C. Blunt III, to Randy A. 
Blunt and to Richard D. Blunt. My purpose was to offer them--oh, I see, 
Richard is probably his brother. He said, My purpose was to offer them 
an insight into a time in my life that was quite remote from the man 
they know.
  Many fathers, as mine almost did, take to the grave the stories of 
their youth when they were called upon to offer their very life or 
their limbs or suffer unbelievably serious wounds as Bob Dole, the 
leader of the Republicans in the Senate, majority leader in 
[[Page H3039]] the Senate, suffered just 16 days before Hitler 
committed suicide at the end of the war. Senator Dole is approaching 
the 50th anniversary of his horrible wounds that kept him literally 
imprisoned in a hospital in Kansas for 3\1/2\ years. The full length of 
the war itself is what Bob had to add to his Army service. A young 21-
year-old lieutenant when a German artillery shell brought him to the 
very edge of death's door.
  This is the story also of the 84th Infantry Division. The ax chopping 
at a piece of wood, one of the divisions that was formed in 1942, 
building our Nation up to roll back Nazism, fascism, Mussolini, Hitler 
and the warlords of Tojo.
  So, please, to young people, if you want just one man's view of these 
cataclysmic events across Europe, Roscoe Blunt's book, ``Inside the 
Battle of the Bulge,'' is as good as it gets and it is very short. You 
can read it in a night or two.
  I wanted to put in the Record, Mr. Speaker, a brief analysis of why 
Adolf Hitler, Chancellor and Furor of Germany, leader of Germany, why 
in September 1944 he organized with great secrecy our intelligence, did 
not break the secret of his massive offensive across the first few 
acres of Germany, territory that we held on the West or allied side of 
the Rhine River 50 years ago last December.
  It said, Hitler's offensive, General Field Marshall Toeffel wrote 
after the war, Hitler's offensive was because he, Hitler, was convinced 
that the Allied coalition was on the verge of breaking up. He was into 
the gossip of the tension between Montgomery and Gen. George Patton, 
but he did not take into account the major skills as a conciliator of 
Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, a man who had only been a lieutenant colonel at 
the Louisiana war games in 1940. We did find the right man in the right 
place at the right time to hold together all of these egos, in the best 
sense of the word, of his combatant officers, British, Canadian, and 
United States.
  But the Bulge was mainly a United States battle, the British only 
had--``only'' is a sad word to use--200 killed in action, that is 50 
more than we lost in the whole gulf war and double what our Allies lost 
in the gulf war. Two hundred is painful, but compared to our thousands, 
11,000 killed in action and twice that missing in action, it was an 
American conflict.
  The nightmare in their Ardennes, Mr. Speaker, what we call the Bulge, 
began on a snowy afternoon 2 days before the combat when a Sgt. Ralph 
Neppel, to focus in on one man, and the rest of his machine gun squad, 
December 14, 1944, set up a defensive perimeter at the end of the main 
street of Birgel, and that was German soil this side of the Rhine, a 
hamlet on the edge of the Herkin Forest, which is where Bob Michel, our 
former leader was wounded and where one of our now deceased great 
leaders on the other side, Mr. Nichols of Alabama had lost a leg in the 
Herkin Forest trying to retrieve a wounded man from a mine field, he 
also stepped on a mine leaving his leg in Europe. Before that time, 
Neppel's company had advanced steadily from that day it landed at 
Normandy on D-day plus 13.
  The combat through the hedge rows and into Germany had been fierce, 
but nothing had prepared Sgt. Ralph Neppel for what he was to endure 
that evening at Birgel. Near dusk, the machine gun crew was astonished 
to hear the rumble of tanks entering the town. Neppel later reasoned 
that he and his men had not seen them earlier because they were 
camouflaged for winter. The sound of the grinding machinery, the 
terrifying sound for ground forces, came closer until a number of tanks 
emerged from the narrow side streets and turned toward the squad's
 position. German infantry followed the lead tank using it as a shield.

  Neppel held his fire until the Germans had advanced to within 100 
yards, then released a burst that killed several of the foot soldiers. 
The first tank lumbered forward within 30 yards of Neppel, then fired 
one cannon shot and blasted the Americans and sent the machine gun 
flying. Neppel was thrown 10 yards from the gun, his legs wounded 
horribly. In shock, he looked down to see that his foot had been blown 
off. He realized the other men were either dead or about to die, so he 
crawled on his elbows back to the gun and tried to set it up himself.
  When he found the tripod had been knocked loose, he cradled the gun 
in the crook of his arm and fired until he was too weak to lift it any 
further. He killed the remaining infantrymen around the lead German 
tank.
  Without infantry cover, the Panzer tank was left vulnerable to attack 
from bazookas or other American foot soldiers with phosphorous grenades 
so the tanks stopped. Neppel remembered the furious commander emerging 
from his tank and like a vision from a nightmare, advancing on the 
sergeant with a Luger held in his hand. The officer fired, hitting 
Neppel in the helmet and left him for dead. The helmet apparently 
diverted the course of the bullet. Neppel's skull was creased but he 
was alive and conscious.
  Remember, Mr. Speaker, no foot, the rest of his leg shredded. When he 
again heard the rumbling of tanks, he was gripped by the awful thought 
that they were moving forward and would soon crush him under their tank 
treads. Instead, they withdrew.
  Neppel was rescued by American troops as they took Birgel. He was to 
spend 6 months regaining his strength in a hospital. He had single-
handedly turned back a Nazi armored attack but had lost both of his 
legs in the effort.
  When he heard he was to receive the Medal of Honor, his reaction was 
to feel humble. This quotes him, ``to feel humble.'' You see so many 
die, then in the hospital, you see triple amputees, guys who have lost 
their eyesight. You feel there are so many more deserving that you 
shouldn't be taking the glory as an individual. This was one of many 
recipients of the Medal of Honor and one of those who came home with 
terrible wounds, as I repeat, Senator Bob Dole did.
  Here is a picture of Neppel posing with a French rifle prior to his 
individual battle with a German Tiger on Panther tank. It doesn't 
identify the tank.
  Here is another individual case. Pfc. Melvin ``Bud'' Biddle and the 
rest of his unit were in Reims, France, waiting to go home when the 
Germans launched their attack. Veterans of campaigns in Italy and 
southern France, they had turned in their equipment and were passing 
the time listening to Axis Sally, an English-speaking Nazi radio 
propagandist who played the latest hits from America while spouting 
lies in an attempt to demoralize the Allies. The troops were amused and 
then influenced by her show.
  That night she announced, men of the 517th Parachute Infantry 
Regiment, you think you are going home, but you are not. This time, her 
information was deadly correct. The men of the 517th were issued new 
equipment, so new, in fact, that their rifles were still packed in 
Cosmoline grease, which the men had to clean off before they boarded 
their trucks and were driven to a crossroads in an area near the most 
advanced point of the German thrust into Belgium. This is during the 
later rescue operation of Patton's Third Army.
  The men were to face again the elite troops of the German Army, 
Panzer divisions, paratroopers, and the dreaded SS soldiers. The 
mission of the 517th was to clear the Germans out of 3 miles of 
territory between the towns of Soy and Hotton. Biddle was the lead 
scout for the 517th. I may have mixed up the 101st with the 82d 
Airborne, here, Mr. Speaker, and I won't have time to correct it. A job 
he had inherited with other scouts who were wounded or killed during 
the Italian campaign.
  One of his qualifications was his superb vision. He later picked up 
the nickname, Hawkeye, this GI from Indiana. I saw every German out in 
front before they saw me, which was a large part of keeping me alive. 
He was keenly aware of the responsibility he held as the lead scout and 
said later it helped him forget his fear.
  I think I got so I would rather die than be a coward. I was terrified 
most of the time. But there were two or three times when I had no fear, 
no fear. That is why I love to wear it on my ball cap, Team Dornan, no 
fear, and it is remarkable. It makes you so you can operate in the 
lead.
  One of those times came on the 7th day of the Battle of the Bulge, 
the 23d of December. Biddle was
 ahead of his company as he crawled through the thick underbrush toward 
railroad tracks leading out of Hotton.

  I would recommend to these young people in the gallery, get a map. 
Keep 
[[Page H3040]] the map next to the books and the stories as you read 
this and track what these 18-, 19-, 20- and 21-year-old heroes, 21- and 
22-year-old platoon leaders, 20-, 21-year-old sergeants, platoon 
sergeants leading three squads of young men and some 10 years older 
than they.
  Unseen by the Germans, he crawled to within 10 feet of three 
sentries. Firing with his M1 rifle, he wounded one man in the shoulder, 
killed a second with two shots near the heart. The third sentry fled 
but not before Biddle shot him twice.
  I should have got him. He kept running and got to their machine guns 
and then all hell broke loose. Under heavy fire, Biddle stayed on point 
as his unit crawled to within range through lobbed grenades and 
destroyed all but one of the guns. With his last grenade, Biddle blew 
up the remaining machinegun, then he charged the surviving gunners, 
killing them all.
  That night the Americans heard a large number of tracked vehicles 
which Biddle hoped would be American. I have never heard so many 
Germans. They didn't have equipment like we had, not in our numbers.
  Biddle volunteered to lead two others in a scouting foray to make 
contact with these vehicles, what he thought were Americans. In the 
darkness, the three men came upon a German officer who fired at them. 
Separated from the others, Biddle crawled toward the German lines by 
mistake, realizing his error, he continued to reconnoiter by himself, 
alone, and carried back valuable information for use in the next day's 
attack.
  Mr. Speaker, the next morning he spotted a group of Germans dug in 
along a ridge. He ducked behind a small bank for cover. He found he 
could not properly maneuver in order to shoot. In basic training he had 
learned to shoot from a sitting position, his favorite, but at the time 
he had thought there would be no way to use that in combat.
  Now moving to a sitting stance, he shot 14 men. He hit each one in 
the head, imagining that the helmets were the same as the targets he 
had aimed at in training. Although others in his unit later would view 
the bodies, Biddle could not bring himself to look at the carnage he 
had wrought. His sharp shooting, however, made it possible for his unit 
to secure the village.
  The next day, a German 88, same artillery that hit Senator Dole, 
exploded a shell in a building behind him as he was returning to his 
unit from a hospital in London. Another soldier asked if he had heard 
about the guy in the Bulge that shot all those people. My God, between 
Soy and Hotton, it was littered with Germans. I think they are going to 
put the guy in for the Medal of Honor. He is another one of our 
surviving Medal of Honor winners from the Bulge battle. Most paid for 
it with their lives.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to submit this for the Record. I would like 
to submit an article on the 80,987 men who were casualties, again, 
10,276 killed, 23,218 missing. And I would like to put in an article on 
what was happening this month 50 years ago, the rout in the Rhineland 
and also another article from the VFW magazine this month sweeping the 
southern Philippines where our young men, who may be not so young 
today, watching will know that I have not forgotten the Pacific.
  And I close on the words of a youngster plus 50 that I met on the 
scene in the Bulge. I said, ``What division were you in, corporal?'' 
And he said he was wearing a jacket from his old uniform. He said 106th 
Division, two of our regiments surrendered; the largest American battle 
surrender in the history of our Nation.
  And he said these sentences to me: ``We were all college kids. We 
were too young. We didn't make out very well. It was all a waste.'' And 
I said, ``Wait a minute. Did you regroup? Were you captured?'' ``No.'' 
``Were you retrained? Did you go on to fight in Germany and bring about 
the collapse of Hitler on D-Day, March 8th Harry Truman's birthday.'' 
``Yes, Congressman, I did.'' And I said, ``Corporal, It was worth it. 
Your units weren't a failure. You took the brunt, as unbloodied, 
unseasoned troops that were put on what they thought was a quiet front-
line area and no matter what your casualties nor how your regimental 
commander surrendered you to save lives since you were out of 
ammunition, you were part of what Eisenhower called `The Great 
Crusade.'''
  At some point I am going to do a special order on our young prisoners 
who were killed not at night, as it is shown in movies, not 
machinegunned from the back of trucks where they dropped the tail end 
of the truck, but the way it happened for real, in the middle of the 
afternoon, in an open field, at this Baugneuz crossroads and that 
sacred ground where so many of our prisoners were machinegunned by SS 
order telling young men to kill other men their age.
  That Malmedy massacre deserves a half-hour of its own and I will try 
and do that, Mr. Speaker, and then move on to Okinawa next month. These 
heroes gave us our freedom. The Nation was only about 135 million at 
Pearl Harbor. We are now closing in on 270 million, twice as many 
people, as we called upon to mount this great effort for victory and 
freedom in World War II.
  Reagan used to like to say, ``We are Americans, we can do anything.'' 
Is there any reason we can't balance the budget here and recapture the 
American spirit and leave a better country to our grandchildren? Of 
course we can do it and nobody is asking us to die or have our young 
bodies torn apart in the process.
  I yield back a few seconds, look forward to hearing my colleague from 
Pennsylvania.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman from California 
has expired.
                         Rout in the Rhineland

                            (By Ken Hechler)

       In a Belgian orchard 10 miles from the German border at 
     daybreak on Sept. 10, 1944, a barrage from U.S. 155mm guns 
     thundered into the German frontier town of Bildchen. The 
     church steeple collapsed in a shower of mortar dust and 
     bricks. Defenders now realized that although they were being 
     pulverized from afar, GIs were knocking at the gates of their 
     homeland.
       Within five days, U.S. forces were assaulting the ``West 
     Wall'' or Siegfried Line, officially launching the Rhineland 
     Campaign.
       GIs joked about the much-vaunted Siegfried Line with its 
     pillboxes and ``dragon's teeth'' tank obstacles: ``All we 
     have to do is to send a couple of dentists to yank out the 
     dragon teeth and we'll tie knots in the Siegfried Line!'' The 
     boast came back to haunt its author, as some of the fiercest 
     fighting of the war came as the Americans spent from Oct. 2-
     21 capturing the first sizable German city: Aachen.
       The day after the Long Tom artillery shell toppled the 
     Bildchen steeple, Staff Sgt. Warner W. Holzinger of the 85th 
     Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron had the honor of leading the 
     first patrol across the German border.
       But it soon became apparent that the Germans fully intended 
     to use the pyramid-shaped concrete obstacles, plus their 
     string of reinforced pillboxes, to exact a severe toll on the 
     attackers.


                         ``Jewel City'': Aachen

       Aachen opened the way to the Rhineland and the Cologne 
     plain. To the German garrison--12,000 strong--defending 
     Aachen, Heinrich Himmler sent this message: ``German 
     soldiers! Heroes of Aachen! Our Fuehrer calls upon you to 
     defend to the last bullet, the last gasp of breath, Aachen, 
     this jewel city of German kultur, this shrine where German 
     emperors and kings have been enthroned!''
       Combat engineers, with bangalore torpedoes and TNT, blasted 
     a path through the West Wall fortifications.
       1st Lt. Frank Kolb of the 1st Div. led the first platoon to 
     launch the attack toward Aachen. It was rough going. In a 
     five-day period, the 1st Bn., 16th Inf. Regt. lost 300 men 
     out of its 1,300-man strength. Supported by the 3rd Armored 
     Div. and the 30th Inf. Div. farther north, the ``Big Red 
     One'' found it slow slogging as the rains churned up the mud 
     and kept the bombers out of the sky.
       German SS troops strengthened the enemy lines. Future Medal 
     of Honor recipient T/Sgt. Jake Lindsey remarked: ``Either 
     those Krauts were crazy or else they were the bravest 
     soldiers in the world.'' House-to-house fighting within 
     Aachen produced murderously high casualties on both sides. 
     (The 30th Inf. Div. lost 3,100 men; the 1st Inf. Div. 
     suffered an equal number of casualties.)
       The 248th Engineer Combat Bn. created a humorous diversion 
     by loading up several streetcars on a downgrade into Aachen 
     with time-fused shells and other explosives; swarms of news 
     correspondents covered the bizarre exploit, which actually 
     caused little damage.
       Finally, after Aachen was surrounded and his own 
     headquarters were under small arms fire, the German commander 
     surrendered when his ammunition ran out.
       ``The city is as dead as a Roman ruin,'' wrote an American 
     observer. ``But unlike a ruin it has none of the grace of 
     gradual 
     [[Page H3041]] decay * * * Burst sewers, broken gas mains and 
     dead animals have raised an almost overpowering smell in many 
     parts of the city.'' Hitler's prophecy had been realized: 
     ``Give me five years and you will not recognize Germany 
     again,'' he had said.
                           ANCIENT METZ FALLS

       Some 113 miles to the south, on the French border, ``Blood 
     and Guts'' Gen. George S. Patton had led his Third Army on a 
     450-mile run from Avranches at the base of the Cherbourg 
     Peninsula to the gates of the fortress city of Metz, where he 
     met the forbidding fortifications of Fort Driant.
       The fort had concrete walls seven feet thick, connected by 
     underground tunnels with a central fortress. The defenders 
     had emplaced huge quantities of barbed wire to add to the 
     problems facing attackers. The German garrison of 10,000 had 
     ample supplies of food and water. Other forts in the Metz 
     area were similarly equipped.
       In the early days of November, the 5th, 90th and 95th 
     Infantry and 10th Armored divisions of XX Corps were slowed 
     by the heavy rains which plagued the entire theater. Hitler 
     took a very personal interest in the defense of Metz, 
     reiterating his order that it must be held ``to the last 
     man.'' The new garrison commander, Heinrich Kittel, pledged 
     to carry out that order.
       There were many individual feats of heroism as U.S. forces 
     slowly closed the jaws of the trap around Metz between Nov. 
     18-22. Pfc. Elmer A. Eggert of L Co., 379th Inf. Regt., 95th 
     Div., advanced alone against a machine gun, killing five of 
     the enemy and capturing four, earning a Distinguished Service 
     Cross. After his tank received a direct hit, Cpl. C.J. Smith 
     of the 778th Tank Bn. dismounted the .30-caliber machine gun 
     and fought on alone until help arrived; he was also awarded a 
     DSC.
       Despite Hitler's own order, he allowed an SS regiment--
     which he planned to use in the Ardennes offensive--to slip 
     out of Metz in the last stages of the U.S. offensive. Gen. 
     Kittel finally surrendered Metz on Nov. 21, although several 
     of the forts, including Driant, held out well into December 
     before giving up.
       The 5th Div.'s November losses were 172 KIA, 1,005 WIA and 
     143 MIA. The 95th Div. estimated 281 KIA, 1,503 WIA and 405 
     MIA. Records of casualties of other units involved in the 
     Metz operation are incomplete. Hugh M. Cole, official Army 
     historian of the Metz operation, concluded that the capture 
     of Metz was ``skillfully planned and marked by thorough 
     execution,'' and ``may long remain an outstanding example of 
     a prepared battle for the reduction of a fortified 
     position.''
       The U.S. First and Ninth Armies had launched Operation 
     Queen in mid-November, with the Ninth clearing the west bank 
     of the Roer River from Brachelen to Altdorf by early 
     December. (See the November issue for the Battle of Huertgen 
     Forest.) Queen witnessed, incidentally, the largest air-
     ground cooperative effort to date in the ETO.
       Offensive operations were resumed Jan. 17, 1945. Operation 
     Grenade achieved the Allied assault crossings over the Roer 
     River, followed by a northeastward drive by the U.S. Ninth 
     Army's link up with the First Canadian Army along the Rhine. 
     The Ninth Army (its dash to the Rhine was dubbed Operation 
     Flashpoint) comprised four corps with 13 divisions. In 
     reaching the Rhine, the Ninth Army captured 30,000 German 
     soldiers and killed 6,000, at the cost of 7,300 U.S. 
     casualties.
       A sequel to Grenade--Operation Lumberjack--was a converging 
     thrust made by the U.S. First and Third Armies to trap the 
     Germans in the Eifel Mountains during the first week of 
     March. GIs were now poised to ``bounce'' the Rhine.


                       REMAGEN: AN ``OPEN WOUND''

       On the afternoon of March 7, 1945, 34-year-old Sgt. Alex 
     Drabik from Toledo, Ohio, bobbed and weaved his squad across 
     a Rhine River railroad bridge (Ludendorff) at the little town 
     of Remagen, Germany. His company commander, Lt. Karl 
     Timmermann, from A Co., 27th Armored Inf. Bn., 9th Armored 
     Div., who had ordered the crossing, followed close behind. 
     Drabik, Timmermann and a handful of infantrymen, engineers 
     and tankers, performed one of the most incredible feats in 
     the annals of military history.
       The Rhine River had not been crossed by an invading army 
     since Napoleon's time over a century earlier. Hitler had 
     ordered all the bridges up and down the Rhine to be blown up 
     as the Americans approached. The last bridge, between Cologne 
     and Koblenz, was still standing to enable German tanks and 
     artillery to retreat safely. Just as Lt. Timmermann gave the 
     order for Drabik's squad to cross, tremendous explosions 
     shook the bridge and seemed to lift it from its foundations. 
     The structure shuddered, but miraculously remained standing.
       At this point, Lt. Hugh Mott and two brave armored 
     engineers, Eugene Dorland and John Reynolds, dashed out on 
     the bridge and feverishly cut wires to the remaining 
     explosive charges. The Germans blew a 30-foot crater in the 
     approach to the bridge to prevent tanks from crossing. Sgt. 
     Clemon Knapp of Rupert, W.Va., and a crew, manned a ``tank 
     dozer''--a Sherman tank with a bulldozer blade--and filled in 
     the crater. Knapp and his crew received Silver Stars for 
     their actions.
       The night of March 7 was one of the darkest of the war. Yet 
     Lt. Windsor Miller gently guided his 35-ton Sherman tanks 
     across the shaky bridge, dodging some gaping holes as he 
     maneuvered between white tapes strung by the engineers. 
     Across the Rhine, Miller's tank platoon beat off several 
     German counter-attacks as they helped the armored infantry 
     hang on to their tenuous toehold.
       When the bridge was captured, the first troops proudly 
     attached a sign reading: Cross the Rhine with dry feet--
     Courtesty 9th Arm'd Div.
       The 9th, 78th and 99th Infantry divisions rushed to the 
     scene to reinforce the bridgehead. Military police, tank-
     destroyer and anti-aircraft units were awarded Presidential 
     Unit Citations for their heroism under fire.
       Hitler threw in jet planes, underwater swimmers, giant V-2 
     rockets and massive reinforcements in trying to destroy the 
     bridge. The bridge itself was so severely damaged that it 
     collapsed without warning on March 17, taking the lives of 28 
     repairmen and injuring 93. But not before a pontoon and 
     treadway bridge had been built under fire on either side of 
     the permanent bridge.


                           west bank cleansed

       By mid-March, mopping up operations west of the Rhine were 
     completed by the U.S. VIII Corps. Within a few days, 
     Operation Undertone was under way by the U.S. Seventh Army to 
     clear the Saar-Palatinate triangle.
       On March 22, 1945, the 90th Inf. Div. cleared Mainz while 
     other GIs achieved a surprise late night crossing of the 
     Rhine at Oppenheim, south of Mainz. By then, the U.S. First 
     Army held a bridgehead across the river 20 miles wide and 
     eight miles deep; six divisions were east of the Rhine. The 
     stage was set for the final drive into Germany's heartland.

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