[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 76 (Tuesday, May 9, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E980-E981]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           MEMORIAL DAY 1995

                                 ______


                             HON. BOB STUMP

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 9, 1995
  Mr. STUMP. Mr. Speaker, sacrifice. It's a word we all know. All of us 
have made some sacrifices in our lives. We make sacrifices for our 
family, for our close friends, even for our neighbors and coworkers. 
Persons in the Armed Forces make many sacrifices, and over one million 
Americans have given their lives, the ultimate sacrifice, while serving 
in our Nation's armed forces. Throughout history, members of the Armed 
Forces have risked their lives not merely for their family or their 
coworkers, but for a cause represented by the 
[[Page E981]] American flag, and the freedom to choose and the liberty 
to succeed which it embodies.
  Some Americans are too young to remember; others have too quickly 
forgotten. How important, therefore, that we honor our veterans, that 
we learn from them, and that we teach others about history, about war, 
about sacrifice. We are still reminded about Korea, Vietnam, and more 
recent encounters. We should not, however, allow the memory, the 
lessons, and the sacrifices of our terrible world wars to fade. Proud 
veterans of those wars are among us today. Their presence bears witness 
to sacrifice.
  Fifty years ago this month, our Nation was beginning to absorb the 
meaning of victory in Europe, to realize what the final tally was in 
terms of lives lost or shattered as the result of the awful conflict in 
Europe and North Africa. In April of 1945, President Roosevelt had died 
of a cerebral hemorrhage at Warm Springs, GA. The battle in the Pacific 
still raged as scientists neared completion of the first atomic bomb. 
The sacrifices would continue for 4 more months, and then the bloodiest 
of all wars would be over.
  Veterans of World War I saw staggering losses in bitter trench 
warfare and history's first use of such horrible tactics as gas 
warfare. Fewer than 20,000 veterans of that brutal conflict are still 
alive today.
  Cemeteries in two small towns in northwest Maryland contain the dead 
from the bloodiest day of the Civil War. The United States and the 
world learned of the awful toll of war when two of Mathew Brady's 
assistants photographed the dead of the 1-day
 battle at Antietam. The pictures brought home the shocking toll of war 
and its accompanying sacrifice when they were first displayed in 1862, 
and they are no less shocking today. Each Memorial Day, the 2,100 
graves of the Union dead are decorated with small American flags, a 
scene which stirs the conscience, but which only hints at the 
sacrifices which took place on the day of the battle. The nearby 
cemetery containing 2,400 Confederate dead, no less valiant, is 
undecorated on most Memorial Days, because there are not sufficient 
funds to remember the sacrifice of these equally selfless men and boys.

  Battlefields and cemeteries remind us of the terrible sacrifices and 
loss of life in war. But many of us or our family members remember all 
too directly the experience of war. The first half of this century saw 
two world wars. These were the ``wars to end all wars''. How wrong we 
were to think the experience of war was behind us! Consider Korea, 
Vietnam, Lebanon, Grenada, and Panama. The Persian Gulf, Somalia, and 
Haiti. We have asked much of our fighting men and women.
  Although many members of our Armed Forces are buried on foreign 
soils, there are cemeteries throughout this country which contain the 
remains of the very best that America had to offer. Remembering is what 
Memorial Day is for, and what gives it meaning is how each one of us 
remembers the great sacrifices which have made possible the blessings 
we share as Americans today.


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