[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 83 (Thursday, May 18, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H5359-H5365]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      CONTINUATION OF REMARKS ON 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF WORLD WAR II

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from California [Mr. Dornan] is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. DORNAN. Madam Speaker, a pretty exciting and historical day 
today. What I wanted to do was to add to this history by keeping a 
promise I made last month that I would finish my remarks on what was 
happening 50 years ago this week. The war in Europe had ended, but the 
struggle for the small series of islands comprising Okinawa and a 
smaller group of subsidiary islands was one of the bloodiest fights of 
the Pacific campaign.
  Before I move forward to 1945, let me point out the stories of two 
friends of mine. Today, 30, years ago, in 1965, my best friend in the 
Air Force, David Hrdlicka, was shot down over Laos. He was only TDY, 
down from the wing on that island of Okinawa that so many young men had 
died on just 20 years before, and during the 20th anniversary of that 
1945 struggle there we were taking the first small steps back into 
combat in Asia. David was in what I thought at the time was the world's 
greatest aircraft. I was desperately asking the Air Force to recall me 
to active duty so that I could fly Mach II, the world's only Mach II, 
twice the speed of sound, aircraft, the F-105 Thunderchief, which was 
eventually nicknamed after Robert Strange, evil, McNamara's no-win war. 
It was the thud, semi-affectionately given that name because of the 
number shot down coming into the Red River Valley, into the target area 
over Hanoi and Haiphong, the sound of the big F-105 hitting the ground, 
the thuds. More Republic F-105 aircraft were lost in combat, prorated 
to the number of planes that flew in Southeast Asia, than any other 
plane in the war. It carried the major burden of bombing up north along 
with magnificent efforts on the part of the Navy's A-4's, F-8's, and F-
4's, and then eventually A-6 Intruders.

                              {time}  1915

  But the l05 was a special airplane. I remember sitting with Dave 
Hrdlicka in the base theater at George Air Force base when some test 
pilots came over from Edwards Air Force Base, our Air Force test 
center, and threw up on the screen big pictures of the F-105. We had 
only seen pictures of the Mach-2 F-104 Starfighter a few months ago, 
but unlike the Starfighter, a tiny airplane, with small, 7-foot wings, 
the F-105 was the biggest fighter aircraft ever made, longer from the 
pitot boom and its nose to the tip of its vertical stabilizer than was 
the World War II four-engine B-17 Flying Fortress.
  So there was Dave, having completed with his lovely wife Carol and 
their little babies, a great tour in England, flying another 
outstanding aircraft, the F-101 Voodoo. David flew at Bentwaters, which 
had the only fighter version of the F-101, all the rest were 
interceptors or reconnaissance versions. A unique situation to have 
only one Air Force wing of three squadrons in the whole world where 
they, a two-engine fighter, the predecessor to the four-generation, 
four-decade Phantom, David, I thought, was leading a charmed life from 
George Air Force Base in the beautiful Mojave Desert to England with 
all of its culture, defending Europe from the evil empire, and then 
home for a while and then to this great assignment at Okinawa. And 
suddenly here he is, flying over a country that only a few years ago 
became famous because of a young President's accent talking about chaos 
in Laos. And Dave gets hit from the ground.
  Not a damaging hit to him personally, but hit the rear of the 
airplane, made a radio call calmly that he was going to have to eject. 
His wing man saw him come down into a clearing. As he was disengaging 
from his parachute, trying to come up on his radio, they saw men 
surround him, probably Communist Pathet Lao soldiers. And he was taken 
off into the woods at the edge of a clearing.
  Years later, a photograph appears in Moscow, reprinted in the Long 
Beach, CA newspaper and sent to Carol where she had gone home to her 
family to be near a ranch which was her upbringing with young children. 
And somebody who knew the Hrdlickas from the Air Force said, I think 
this is David's picture in this Long Beach newspaper. And they sent it 
to Carol.
  She looked. Sure enough. Dave was very distinctive, stocky, typical 
fighter pilot, handsome face. And Carol called the Air Force at the 
closest base, which was probably Lowry and said, ``Where is the 
briefing on my husband? Here is his picture.''
  They were so embarrassed. I remember Carol telling me that they got 
the highest ranking officer in the entire area, a brigadier general, a 
man who knew absolutely nothing about the missing in action cause, and 
they sent him out to Carol Hrdlicka's house to say something, anything. 
It was embarrassing for her and for him.
  Thirty years later to this very day, Carol is still finding out 
things from 
[[Page H5360]] records that are being released that were never told to 
her, including a rescue operation to free David who at one point in the 
late 1960's, he was a known prisoner for 5 or 6 years, was held in a 
cave with Charlie Shelton.
  Charlie had been shot down in a reconnaissance aircraft, David being 
the first fighter aircraft downing in Laos. Charlie had gone down on 
his 33d birthday, on April 29, 1965.
  I meant to come to the well and remember Charlie, too, although I did 
not know him. He was my vintage,
 a pilot training graduate. David was a year behind me. I got to know 
his wife Marian as well as I knew Carol over the years. Marian 
committed suicide during the 25th year of Charlie's imprisonment. He 
was kept on record as a POW, the last one, the one and only POW until a 
few months ago.
  I went to his remembrance ceremony at Arlington with his five grown 
children, children that would have been Charlie's grandchildren. His 
oldest son is a Franciscan priest. The Hrdlicka family is also 
Catholic.
  These two men were known to be held together in a cave, Charlie and 
Dave. For years reports coming out through intelligence sources of 
several escape attempts, a report once that Charlie had been wounded 
twice, recovered from his wounds, same kind of rumors about David. 
Then, as I said on Jefferson's birthday last month when I declared for 
the Presidency, they just sort of disappeared into the mist of Asian 
history. I will not accept that.
  That is why next month, as chairman of the military personnel 
subcommittee, I am going to have hearings with a focus just on Laos, 
what happened to Col. Charlie Shelton and what happened to then a young 
major, now a colonel, when he was declared presumptive finding of 
death, what happened to David Hrdlicka?
  What happened to the other 300 men that all went down somewhere 
around Laos?
  It is interesting that the current Assistant Secretary for Asian 
Affairs, Winston Lord, a former Ambassador, wrote the memo to Kissinger 
that Henry Kissinger fed to Nixon that had Nixon go on national 
television when the fourth and final big C-141 Starlifter brought our 
men back on those freedom flights from Hanoi in the spring of 1973. The 
first flight landed appropriately on Lincoln's birthday, February 12.
  Six weeks later the fourth and final freedom flight came out, and 
they all flew nonstop from Hanoi's main Mig base airfield, still shot 
up from Linebacker II operations. They flew nonstop to Manilla. For men 
like our own Sam Johnson, who served so brilliantly and loyally on this 
side of the aisle, who was part of this historic vote today of 238 to 
193, Sam had not had a warm shower in 7 years until he hit Clark Air 
Force Base in the Philippines, let alone a decent, warm meal. Several 
of the men told me they consumed five hamburgers and then would go to 
waffles and bacon and eggs. And the flight surgeons were sitting right 
there and said, ``Go ahead, gorge yourselves.'' But it was amazing to 
see so much passage of time, twice as long as World War II at 3\1/2\ 
years, twice as long as World War II was Sam Johnson imprisoned. And 
there was one Green Beret, Floyd Thompson, who was in exactly a week 
shy of 9 years.
  It brings back memories of mine, made me want to run for Congress, to 
see if I could change this Government. It was so insufferable that an 
evil man like McNamara could allow the best and the brightest of our 
military academies, the best and brightest of our aviation cadets and 
ROTC graduates to rot in prison for 9 years, 8 years for Ed Alvarez and 
7 for men like Sam Johnson, in Laos. Nothing.
  Then Winston Lord feeds this memo to Henry Kissinger, by then 
Secretary of State, and he feeds it to Nixon. And Nixon goes on 
television and says, all the men who were prisoners in Laos have been 
accounted for. Well, that absolutely was not true.
  The North Vietnamese Communists, in an ugly little effort at the very 
end on that bright morning in Hanoi, end of March 1973, took 10 men who 
had been captured in Laos by North Vietnamese troops and all taken into 
the Hanoi prison system, except for one, a CIA Air America man named 
Ernie Brace, who had been in a small prison at Dien Bien Phu, where the 
French had lost their final battle in the spring of 1954. Ernie Brace 
was held at Dien Bien Phu for 3 weeks. And then he, like the other 
nine, was immediately moved into the Hanoi prison system. So these were 
North Vietnamese, Hanoi-held prisoners.
  Nixon either deliberately or knowingly announced to the world, all 
the Laotian-held prisoners are home. And not a one was home. Not 
Charlie Shelton, not David Hrdlicka, not any of the other roughly 298.
  I remember saying at the time, I have been saying it for the last two 
decades, where was the warning to our men that if your plane is shot up 
over the target areas over North Vietnam and you are smoking or you are 
losing power, or your pieces are coming off your airplane, do not try 
to get across Laos, back to your Thailand bases? Do not try to 
rendezvous with a helicopter, that rescue, Jolly Green Giant chopper in 
sight, bend it around, punch out, and parachute into North Vietnam, 
because there your odds are about 75, 80 percent that you will be 
coming home someday. But if you bail out over Laos and that chopper 
does not jerk you out, the penetrator cable does not come down and pull 
you out of a triple canopy jungle, you will never be heard from again 
by your fellow citizens. What an ugly shame.
  So at the hearings next month, maybe I will have one of the grown 
Shelton sons or daughters come and tell us what these 30 years and 20 
days have been like for them. I know Carol, Carol Hrdlicka has said she 
will come to tell us what her struggle has been like, trying to get 
justice out of her Government for 30 years.
  And because Carol is watching on television, I wanted to tell another 
story involving another hero who passed away a few days ago on May 7. 
He was a family friend. I only met him once as a young boy. My mother 
had met him when he was assigned to Palm Springs Army Air Force Base. 
Basically a P-38 base, and a B-26 wing was coming through, the B-26 
Martin Marauder, the 22d bomb wing was on its way to the South Pacific, 
the first medium bomb wing to go over, the first B-26 Marauders to go 
into combat.
  Walter Krell was a young captain. My mother had on the dresser in her 
room a picture of herself, my aunt, who is still alive and vigorous, I 
hope she is watching, Flo Haley, the wife of the tin man in the Wizard 
of Oz, and some other friends. They were trying to buck up the spirits 
of these young P-38 and B-26 pilots on their way to the South Pacific.
  They would sometimes pool their money and see if they could not get a 
plane ticket or very rare DC-3 flight to have the wives come and join 
them in Palm Springs. And my mother used to tell me about this picture. 
He was handsome, Walter Krell, looking a little bit older than the 
other young fighter pilots. There was one very young handsome pilot 
named Pepino. My mom would point to him and say, Pepe, as the men 
called him, said:

       Why are they making us get all of the various shots, going 
     into a jungle area, inoculations, because none of us P-38 
     pilots are coming back; we are all going to get killed in 
     combat; we are working out how to use this big heavy P-38 
     against these light superior Japanese zeros, and the young 
     men that come after us, they will whip the Japanese zeros, 
     but we are the guinea pigs.

  And she said he pointed over to Walter Krell and said:

       Walt over here, he will probably come back because he has 
     got bomber duty.

  Well, for the bomber pilots, it is every bit, if not even more 
hazardous. But Walter Krell, in this photograph with four or five 
fighter pilots and himself, he was the only one who came back.
  I remember meeting him on Waldron Drive in Beverly Hills when he came 
to see us. He was so old looking and mature. I was 12 years of age. He 
could not have been more than 26 or 27. And I remember him having 
dinner with my parents and spending the day with us and telling a few 
stories about the South Pacific. After I came to this Congress, on my 
second tour here in the mid-1980's, I got a letter from a Walter Krell, 
a veterinarian in Yreka, Northern California.
                              {time}  1930

  He said ``Are you Bob Dornan, the son of Mickey Dornan,'' my mother, 
``who gave me a small St. Christopher 
[[Page H5361]] to wear around my neck, which I wore through 120 combat 
missions in the South Pacific? Is that you? Because your mother wrote 
me in 1953 and asked for that small St. Christopher back, so that her 
son could wear it through pilot training.''
  Madam Speaker, here is that St. Christopher medal, on the back of a 
larger medal with the face of Christ. This little St. Christopher took 
Walt Krell, who died Sunday, May 7, took him through 120 combat 
missions, including flying lead when President-to-be Lyndon Baynes 
Johnson was getting his one combat ride, for which Sam Rayburn 
engineered a Silver Star, amazingly. When Lyndon Johnson was in the 
back of another B-26 it was off Walt Krell's wing, then first 
lieutenant, soon to be Captain Krell, was leading--he was a captain by 
then--he was leading this flight when Japan's leading ace, who is still 
alive, I believe, Saboro Sakai, was rolling in trying to shoot down one 
of these B-26's, the one with Johnson on it, or the one that was 
leading the flight with Walter Krell.
  When I got in touch with Walter and found out there was a painting 
out there of his beautiful B-26 in combat, from the point of view of 
Saboro Sakai rolling in on him, I sent it to Saboro Sakai. He 
autographed it and last year Walter sent it back to me with his 
autograph on it.
  Here is an article that Walt sent me that I put in the Congressional 
Record last year. I would like to read part of it to America here, to 
the million or so people that watch this, to give a little bit of the 
flavor of a young Walt Krell in the South Pacific in 1942, the darkest 
year in American history since the Civil War, and maybe after the 
hearings next month with Carol Hrdlicka, I will do something from the 
Shelton children and something from the Hrdlicka children. I have 
gotten to know Dave, Jr., who flew F-18 hornets in the Navy and is now 
an American Airlines 727 pilot, I think, domiciled out of Houston.
  By the way, today, Madam Speaker, I chaired my first subcommittee 
ever, the Military Personnel Subcommittee. It was a good chairman's 
mark in that we have 39 pages of the best legislation I have ever seen, 
section 563, ``Determination of the Whereabouts and Status of Missing 
Persons.''
  The gentleman from New York, Ben Gilman, originated this legislation 
in the Committee on International Relations, and Senate majority leader 
Bob Dole, a World War II veteran over on the Senate side. I am very 
proud of this. I hope that anybody that is interested in this and wants 
to see it will write to the Committee on Armed Services and get this 
legislation. Anything we have missed here we will perfect with this 
focus on Laos next month.
  By the way, when Walter Krell, about 24 or 25 years old, was flying 
B-26's in 1942 out of New Guinea, Bob Dole would have been 18 years of 
age, thinking about becoming an Army officer and going either to the 
Pacific or to Europe.
  Here is Walter Krell's article entitled ``Incendiary Bombs to 
Rabaul.''
  ``In early 1942, Army Air Force Ordnance developed an aerial 
incendiary bomb, a device 4 feet long and 16 inches or so in diameter. 
It consisted of 36 individual incendiary units, tiny bomblets with fins 
and detonators all wired together. The entire bundle, or contained 
unit, was attached to the shackles on our Martin B-26 Marauder bomb bay 
racks like an ordinary bomb, to be released in the standard way. Each 
B-26 would carry 30 or more of these incendiary clusters.
  There was one simple difference between high explosive bombs and 
incendiary bombs. When the arming wire was pulled away upon release of 
these new incendiaries, a shotgun shell would fire a slug that would 
cut the wires holding together the bundle of bomblets. Then the 36 
individual bomblets would break up, releasing each separate incendiary 
unit to fall on the target. The arming wire was supposed to be of 
sufficient length to allow the incendiary mother-bomb to clear the 
aircraft before the arming wire pulled loose and fired the shotgun 
shell thereby dispersing the cluster. Of course, nobody bothered to 
tell that to the B-26 aircrew/gunners who helped with bomb loading, so 
they routinely clipped the wire short as was done with ordinary iron 
bombs. The result was that upon `bombs away', the clusters came apart 
while still within our bomb bays, clattering around and bouncing off 
the structural members of the aircraft. These incendiary bomblets were 
magnesium, and had any of them lodged in the many angular recesses of 
the fuselage, it would have been very exciting indeed.
  ``When I experienced the first release of incendiaries my B-26 was 
flying only 15 feet above
 those powerful little bomblets tumbling away, when many of them began 
igniting and burning. After that the bomb loading of incendiaries had 
the undivided attention of our entire crew of 6.'' In those days they 
did use two side door gunners.

  ``Now that we, in the 22d Bomb Group, had interesting new bombs, it 
was decided they should be delivered all over the docking facilities at 
Rabaul. The first mission to try to do just that would be a flight of 
three Marauders. Lt. Chris Herron would lead and Lt. George Kersting 
would be flying his right wing with me on his left.''
  For all I know, the family members of one of these two men are 
hearing their name now on the House floor.
  ``After an early morning take-off from 7-Mile Airfield near Fort 
Moresby, New Guinea, our Marauders flew northeast, climbed over the 
Owen-Stanley Mountains, descended over the north coast of New Britain, 
and then turned east to Rabaul Harbor. Unhappily, for an undetermined 
cause, gasoline siphoned from my right wing tanks for a full 45 minutes 
after take-off. Because we never returned home from those long Rabaul 
missions with much fuel to spare, my crew was obviously worried. To 
turn back, however, would have aborted the raid for the other two 
crews. We flew on.
  Chris Herron was clever the way he took us in to the target. Still 
heading east, we kept descending and skirted the north side of the 
Rabaul Harbor at low level, then banked right and pulled into a hard 
180-degree turn up and over the rim of the volcanic hills that circled 
the harbor on the north side.''
  I might remind people that this was the major Japanese forward 
staging air base and harbor for capital ships in all of the South 
Pacific.
  ``I remember clearly from my left wing position in our very tight 
turn, looking to my right across Herron's B-26 and seeing George 
Kersting's propwash mash down the tops of coconut trees. Chris then 
rolled us right down on the deck and along the wharfs, and headed west.
  ``There was a Japanese cargo vessel tied up broadside along the first 
dock with dozens of loading personnel moving about on the freighter's 
deck, and at dockside. All of them were totally surprised. I vividly 
remember their reaction of panic. Two Japanese loaders were carrying 
something up a gangplank that resembled a litter. Suddenly they dropped 
the litter and while the guy in the back was still looking up, the guy 
in front wheeled around and charged back right over the top of the 
litter thing, and slammed into the guy staring up at us.''
  Madam Speaker, I flew the B-2, the flying wing, the ``Spirit,'' B-2 
``Spirit,'' on the first of this month, 6 days before Walt died. I was 
going to call him and see if I could come and see him, traveling around 
the country in this quest. That is a two-engine airplane. He would have 
gotten a big thrill, and I'm sure he is listening now--if he is not, he 
was busy in his first--he is in his 12th day up there in that big 
hangar in the sky.
  This is a story that is hard for pilots to realize how things are 
burned into your brain, little quick shots. Imagine coming across the 
water at full speed, a full load of bombs, a surprise attack on the 
biggest Japanese harbor in the South Pacific, and your eye is picking 
up this scene on the dock of a guy turning around and running into the 
guy at the back of the litter, staring up at Walt Krell's B-26.
  ``I could see that Lt. Herron intended to try to take out this ship, 
which was positioned parallel to our line of flight. This would have 
forced me to waste my bombs out in the open harbor to my left, so I 
dropped down and moved ahead of Chris and took the lead, forcing our 
formation to the right over the docking area with its stacked supplies 
and many warehouses: ``Bombs away.'' I immediately banked left and 
headed south towards the Rabaul channel and 
[[Page H5362]] away from the exploding docks, thinking Herron and 
Kersting would hang onto my right wing until we were clear and I could 
slide back into position.
  ``Chris apparently went his own way, but in my left turn I could not 
see where he was. Not wanting to roll back into him, I continued my 
hard turn, yelling to my co-pilot to try and pick up the formation. I 
was now heading back around toward the east rim of the harbor with 
anti-aircraft flak popping all around us, and some of it starting to 
explode much too close.
  ``I twisted my Marauder back and forth to foil the anti-aircraft 
gunners until I was back across the harbor east rim and above an active 
smoking volcano. In spite of this fast-moving action, I was fascinated 
by the volcano's shimmering, silvery walls as I pushed over and dipped 
down inside the crater itself. I banked again changing course back to 
the right, and
 then flew up and over the volcano's western lip.

  ``There below, streaking out through the Rabaul Channel,'' right on 
the deck, ``were Herron and Kersting, so I winged over and swooped down 
to join up. We were back in a three ship `V' formation just as the 
Japanese Navy Zero fighters jumped us. It was touch and go for about 20 
minutes, when straight ahead loomed a sheer wall of thick clouds, 
black, with torrential rain. We spread out and plunged into the 
weather, very happy to wipe off the swarming enemy fighters. Tropical 
fronts were not new to the pilots of our bomb group, but never before 
had we encountered anything to equal the intensity of this storm.
  ``Within minutes our 2,000 horsepower radial engines started to run 
roughly because of the excessive cooling of the heavy rain. The 
rainwater was also driving into the magnetos, which are mounted up 
forward on the Pratt and Whitney engines. We closed our oil shutters 
and cowl flaps, but that did not seem to help much. In most South 
Pacific rainstorms, we found there was usually a clear gap for your 
aircraft to fly between the ocean and the bottom layer of the weather 
front. But not this time. In order to see, so I could stay above the 
waves, I was aided in flying by opening my side window.''
  I can hardly imagine this.
  ``After about 25 intense minutes, I flew out of the extremely 
turbulent storm clouds and made a climbing turn to see if we could pick 
up the other two B-26's. The skies were empty, and with no radio 
response to our many calls, we headed for home.
  ``My co-pilot was I.B. Against my sense of justice, I withhold his 
full name.''
  Actually, Walt Krell had his name in. It was my sense of justice when 
I helped rewrite this that took out his name.
  My co-pilot ``had not been overjoyed with my maneuvers in dodging the 
flak back at Rabaul. He was particularly unhappy when I had to whack 
him across the mouth with the back of my hand to get him off the 
controls during my in-and-out-of-the-volcano caper.''
  I guess you would not find this in a Hollywood script, Madam Speaker.
  ``He was sulking as we gained altitude to clear the Owen Stanley 
Mountains once more. The weather was now clear, with some broken 
clouds. I told I.B. to take it, and to make sure to clear the mountains 
by at least 1,000 feet. Then within minutes I fell dead asleep.''
  It is kind of a thrill to know that the St. Christopher that I have 
been wearing for 42 years was around his neck at this moment.
  ``I woke a short time later. We had cleared the mountains and were in 
a gradual descent, but my co-pilot was definitely not relaxed at the 
controls. Instead, he was staring straight ahead with a strange look on 
his face. My cockpit was in shambles, with scattered papers, maps, and 
manuals strewn everywhere. I turned around to check the guys in the 
navigator's compartment, and they were ashen-faced. `What the hell 
happened?' I asked, quickly figuring out that my co-pilot had skimmed 
the mountain too low and had gotten into an awful thump of a turbulent 
downdraft. Suddenly at that moment the right engine quit, starved for 
that 45 minutes of fuel that had siphoned overboard on our climbout. I 
quickly feathered the right prop. We were very light by now and had 
good altitude, so we easily made our 7-Mile Airfield home base. While 
still on the landing roll, our left engine quit, also out of gas. I was 
able to coast off far enough to one side to clear the runway and wait 
for a tow. George Kersting's Marauder made it home shortly after us, 
but no sign of our lead B-26.
  ``Within hours we learned that Chris Herron had lost an engine 
because of the heavy downpour in that tropical storm. Chris' co-pilot, 
an Australian officer who was a former airline pilot, advised that they 
fly due south. The Aussie co-pilot knew of a small island with a 
landing strip. Herron opted to land with their gear down. Tragically, 
the B-26's nosewheel folded and the aircraft flipped over on them, 
crushing the cockpit. Chris and his Australian co-pilot were killed. 
The bombardier and navigator, Lieutenant Barnhill and Lieutenant 
Wright, survived the crash, as did the two crewchief gunners.''
  If you are alive out there, Lieutenant Barnhill or Lieutenant Wright, 
please write Congressman Bob Dornan.
  ``Chris Herron was truly one of the great ones, a natural leader who 
earned the praise and affection of his crew and all of his colleagues 
in the 22d Bomb Group. A day or two later I flew my B-26 ``Kansas 
Komet,'' that's right, Walter Krell grew up, just like Bob Dole, in 
Kansas, ``I flew the `Kansas Komet' back to Australia. As I chopped our 
engines on the ramp at Townsville Airfield, my co-pilot, the same I.B., 
was the first one out and on the ground. When I hit the ground, he 
snarled at me `I will never fly with you again, and I will never fly in 
that airplane again.'
                              {time}  1945

  I told him he was breaking my heart.
  And what did our outstanding group leadership do with this 
disgruntled lieutenant? Why, they let him hang around group operations 
for several weeks, assisting in the combat briefings for the rest of us 
who were flying missions while the colonels found somewhere else to 
transfer him. A General Jimmy Doolittle would have ripped off his 
wings, stripped him down to his jock strap and had him tethered to a 
mule harness to start supplies over the Owen Stanleys.
  Several weeks after that first incendiary mission, Capt. Al Fletcher, 
our 22d Group intelligence officer, told me that a Japanese diary had 
been recovered from a crashed enemy aircraft. In the diary the writer 
told of an incendiary raid on Rabaul by three Martin B-24 Marauders 
that had caused many fires, all of which had been contained except for 
the fires caused by the incendiaries that had fallen into the open 
hatch of a moored freighter.
  Those fires on board the ship could not be controlled. They reignited 
the dock and then the warehouse area, burned fiercely for hours, and 
came within a fraction of torching off a large ammo dump.
  I am sorry I never saw that captured diary that described the impact 
of Lt. Chris Herron's final mission for his country. Yes, sir, he was 
one of the very best.
  That is all I know about Chris Herron. And another of America's World 
War II heroes, Walter Krell, goes to his eternal reward on Sunday, May 
7. A few years later on that island of Okinawa, here is what a small 
press report sounds like for yesterday:
  ``The 6th Marine Division makes its 11th attack on May 17, 1945,'' 50 
years ago yesterday, ``up Sugar Loaf Hill after a pulverizing 
bombardment by Navy and Marine artillery, fighter bombers and naval 
gunfire. Once again the Marines take the hill crest but suffer heavy 
casualties and must withdraw.''
  Madam Speaker, I want to read that again. What was happening 50 years 
ago as we began to clear out the German concentration camps on the 
other side of the world, and try and save people dying by the hundreds 
if not thousands because they only knew a few days of freedom, they 
were so malnourished, before God took them.
  But here on the other side of the world, on
   Okinawa, far worse than what I had talked about on the House floor, 
the casualties at Iwo Jima, but here in this 86-day battle, still not 
over, that started at the beginning of last month, here on the 11th 
assault on Sugar Loaf, I walked this terrible ground on Okinawa once, 
could hardly conceive of the change of real estate, ugly real estate, 
back and forth. They 
[[Page H5363]] must withdraw after winning the ground on the 11th 
attack.
  Nearby the First Marine Division takes Wana Draw and knocks out some 
of the Japanese big guns that were zeroed in on Sugar Loaf. Then the 
Army comes in, a surprise dawn attack by the 77th ``Statue of Liberty 
Division.'' They take a ridge on the Shuri line, eastern end. The 77th 
also reaches the top of Flat Hill Drive, takes it.
  And then the 77th Division is driven off by a counterattack. What 
would make young American Marines and GI's give up ground that they had 
just taken? Only one thing: horrible casualties. Wounded and dying men 
all around you. Seeing in that clear Pacific air hundreds of Japanese 
infantry forces who were fighting with an incredible spirit, that if we 
had ever had to invade Japan would have killed a million of them and 
300,000 of our men.
  Hence the stupidity and arrogance of this argument over at the 
Smithsonian over how to display the fuselage of the Enola Gay, coming 
up on the 50th anniversary of the first two atomic bombs on August 6 
and 9. It was merciful to the Japanese in this frenzy of combat.
  And all this killing is still going on down in the Philippine Islands 
50 years ago today. Although the Japanese down there were falling back, 
here they are fighting with a courageous ferocity. Offshore a kamikaze 
sends the destroyer Douglas H. Fox back to the States for extensive 
repairs.
  As I recall, the day before this 50 years ago the Enterprise had been 
hit; the Enterprise, which had not been at Coral Sea but had survived 
the battle of Midway, all the serious combat around Guadalcanal and all 
the Solomon Islands. It had been in the battle of the Philippine Sea, 
in the battle of Leyte Gulf. It had more battle stars than any other 
carrier, had counted for shooting down, I think, 991 Japanese 
airplanes. It gets hit by a Japanese kamikaze, loses its forward 
loading elevator and is on its way back to Puget Sound on this very day 
50 years ago.
  Then planes from the carrier Ticonderoga further south attacked the 
Japanese garrisons on Taroa Island and Maloelap Atoll in the central 
Pacific Marshall Islands.
  So we have got combat going on Okinawa, still looking for a last few 
snipers down in the caves in Iwo Jima, fighting in the Philippines and 
attacking some of the other Japanese naval bases.
  Madam Speaker, here to personalize this, which I would like to do, 
down to one man. In my Medal of Honor book here is a story about the 
young Marine major and how tough people would fight to inspire their 
men. An incredible story.
  This one more story about day before yesterday. A battalion of the 
6th Marine Division led by Maj. Harry Courtney makes an American banzai 
charge on Okinawa's Sugar Loaf Hill. This was 2 days before this 11th 
attack today and yesterday.
  The Marines take the hill and then are driven off. Courtney is 
awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor.
  B-29's destroy, meanwhile, up in Japan the Mitsubishi aircraft engine 
plant and 3.6 square miles of Nagoya. The Japanese sowed the wind and 
now they were reaping the whirlwind.
  Meanwhile U.S. scientists and bomb experts at Los Alamos, NM select 
Hiroshima, and now comes the lucky names, for target, Kokura spared by 
God's call, I guess, Kyoto, one of the 5 biggest cities, and Yokohama, 
second biggest city, all likely targets for atomic bombs.
  Hiroshima, which ironically was the most Christian city in Japan, and 
Nagasaki, where Portuguese Christian missionaries, Jesuits, had landed 
years before--they were selected. Hiroshima seems especially a good 
target because the surrounding hills will focus the blast.
  Now to Major Courtney. His name is Henry, same as my dad. Same 
nickname, ``Harry.'' Harry Courtney, 29 years of age, was awarded the 
Medal of Honor for 2 days of action, the 14th and 15th of this week, 50 
years ago, May 1945.
  ``U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, born 6 January 1916 in Duluth, MN. 
Appointed from Minnesota. For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at 
the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, as the exec. 
officer of the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Marines, the 6th Marine Division.'' 
None of those units exist
 anymore. ``In action against Japanese forces on Okinawa Shime in the 
Ryukyu Islands. Ordered to hold for the night in static defense behind 
Sugar Loaf Hill after leading the forward elements of his command in a 
prolonged fire fight, Major Courtney weighed the effect of a hostile 
night counterattack against the tactical value of an immediate Marine 
assault, resolved to initiate the assault, and promptly obtained 
permission to advance and seize the forward slope of the hill. Quickly 
explaining the situation to his small, tattered remaining force, he 
declared his personal intention of leading and moving forward and then 
proceeded on his way, boldly blasting nearby cave positions and 
neutralizing enemy guns as he went. Inspired by his courage, every man 
followed without hesitation, and together the intrepid Marines braved a 
terrific concentration of Japanese guns to skirt the hill on the right 
and reach the reverse slope. Harry Courtney sent guides to the rear for 
more ammunition and possible replacements. Subsequently reinforced by 
26 men and an LDT load of grenades''--I guess that is land vehicle 
tank--``he determined to storm the crest of the hill and crush any 
planned counterattack before it could gain sufficient momentum by 
effecting a breakthrough. Leading his men by example rather than by 
command, he pushed ahead with unrelenting aggressiveness hurling 
grenades into cave openings on the slope with devastating effect. Upon 
reaching the crest and observing large numbers of Japanese forming for 
action to attack less than 100 yards away, he instantly attacked, waged 
a furious battle and succeeded in killing many of the enemy himself and 
forcing the remainder to take cover in the caves. Determined to hold, 
he told his men to dig in, and coolly disregarding the continuous hail 
of flying enemy shrapnel, he moved to rally his weary troops, 
tirelessly aiding casualties, and assigned his men to more advantageous 
positions. He was then instantly killed by a hostile mortar blast while 
moving among his men. Maj. Harry Courtney by his astute military 
acumen, indomitable leadership and decisive action in the face of 
overwhelming odds had contributed essentially to the success of the 
Okinawa campaign. His great personal valor throughout sustained his men 
and enhanced the highest traditions of the U.S. Navy. He gallantly gave 
his life for his country.''

  Walter Krell, Chris Herron and the fledgling Army Air Force, Maj. 
Harry Courtney with the Marine Corps, Charley Shelton, and Dave 
Hrdlicka over Laos. Again the last lines of Mitchner's great story of 
flying in Korea comes to mind, his fictitious admiral based on a Mark 
Mitchner or Bull Halsey type, played so beautifully by Frederick March 
says, ``Where do we get such men? Why is America lucky enough to have 
such men?''
  Madam Speaker, when I was on the floor last month about Okinawa, I 
mentioned that we do have one Member, Bob Stump, who served on the 
ships watching the young wounded come aboard. He was barely 18. He had 
fudged his age to join a couple of years before, trained at Pearl 
Harbor and was off the coast of Okinawa.
  Madam Speaker, I include the following article for the Record:

                     [From the Hill, Apr. 5, 1995]

Memories of Okinawa--Representative Bobby Stump Recalls His Role in the 
                Historic Battle on Its 50th Anniversary

                            (By David Grann)

       Bobby Stump wanted to become a doctor, but when the 
     Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he did what 
     all his friends did: He enlisted.
       There was only one catch. He was only 16.
       ``I had to boost my age up,'' the 68-year-old Arizona 
     Republican congressman recalls. ``All my friends were seniors 
     in high school, and, technically, I wasn't old enough.''
       Training as a medical technician for the Navy on Pearl 
     Harbor, he later helped operate at sea on dozens of U.S. 
     servicemen wounded in the bloody battles of Luzon and Iwo 
     Jima. On April 1, 1945, he was on board a ``flat top'' 
     aircraft carrier steaming toward the 60-mile-long, banana-
     shaped island of Okinawa.
       Fifty-years later, the silver-haired chairman of the House 
     Veterans' Affairs Committee, who believes he is the only 
     member of Congress who fought at Okinawa, recalled in an 
     interview the beautiful clear day that launched the most 
     devastating naval battle of World War II. Over 1,200 ships 
     carrying more than 180,000 marines, sailors and soldiers 
     converged on the rocky Pacific island.
       ``It was Easter Sunday,'' he says. ``We didn't know exactly 
     what to expect, but we 
     [[Page H5364]] knew it was going to be bad. We were getting 
     ready to attack the mainland of Japan, and this was a final 
     step.''
       His aircraft carrier was part of an arsenal of 40 large and 
     small carriers, 18 battleships and nearly 200 destroyers. As 
     they moved through the East China Sea, sailors searched the 
     skies for the dreaded Kamikaze suicide planes.
       ``They would come straight in, or drop bombs from under 
     their bellies.'' Stump recalls. ``It didn't matter if you 
     were on a big or little ship. They'd try to hit everything.''
       Although his ship was never hit directly, he watched other 
     ships sinking in flames. His ship rescued sailors from the 
     stormy seas. As the battle dragged into May, there were 
     endless alerts, as planes roared across the night sky.
       Stump witnessed first hand what one war correspondent 
     described in Ronald Spector's account of the battle, Eagle 
     Against the Sun: ``The strain of waiting, the anticipated 
     terror made vivid from past experience, sent some men into 
     hysteria, insanity, breakdown.''
       Stump, who turned 68 on Tuesday, downplays his personal 
     experience. Instead, he speaks solemnly of his friends who 
     lost more than him, those who never came home after the 
     invasion.
       ``It was worse than Luzon and Iwo Jima,'' he says. 
     ``Nothing compared.''
       On June 21, when the guns finally quieted, 7,000 U.S. 
     marines and soldiers were dead. In the protracted sea-air 
     battle offshore, where Stump was, over 5,000 sailors were 
     killed and 5,000 more wounded.
       The toll on the Japanese was equally devastating. Over 
     70,000 Japanese died, along with more than 80,000, mostly 
     civilian Okinawans. ``It was the last ditch effort for the 
     Japanese to stop us, and they fought and fought,'' says 
     Stump.
       After the bitter struggle, Stump finally set sail for home. 
     He had been at sea for over two years. As ships with American 
     recruits passed him heading for Japan, President Truman 
     ordered the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, followed 
     by a second nuclear weapon on Nagasaki.
       It was the only way to stave off an even costlier invasion 
     of the Japanese mainland, Stump says, and a death toll even 
     larger than Okinawa. He was incensed when the Smithsonian 
     Museum recently planned an exhibit of the Enola Gay, 
     suggesting America did not have to bomb Hiroshima in order to 
     end the war.
       ``Anyone who was at Okinawa,'' he says, ``anyone who saw 
     that kind of fighting, knew what an invasion of Japan would 
     really mean and what was at stake.''
       And he adds: ``They would not try to rewrite history.''

  Mr. DORNAN. This battle that started on Easter Sunday, April 1, had 
now been raging for 48 days, barely halfway through the battle. It was 
the last invasion before the assault on Japan's home islands. Okinawa 
was needed, of course, as a harbor for our U.S. fleet and to build more 
air bases for the fighters and heavy bombers to get them up closer. The 
Iwo Jima invasion was necessary as a halfway point. We lost over 6,000 
men and saved, 3 to 1, 18,000 air crewmen to come back to Iwo Jima. Now 
we are moving in closer to finish off the war. The big island would be 
used as a staging area for the invasion of the southern island of 
Kyushu and the planned assault later on Honshu, the middle Japanese 
island where Tokyo is. What a campaign we avoided by all of this brave 
action.
  These Japanese kamikaze or suicide attacks were called ``kikusui,'' 
floating chrysanthemums. There were flown against the invasion fleet 
all around the island. Most aircraft were flown by young men with 
hardly any hours at all as pilots. Almost half of the attacking force 
were kamikaze. I wonder how you got to not fly a kamikaze and get to 
have a parachute and enough fuel to get you home?
  The attacks also included more traditional methods of attack by 
fighters and bombers. Most were shot down by ships of the invading 
forces and U.S. and British naval aircraft. The Americans and the 
British lost 763 aircraft. That is almost as many as we have in all of 
our stateside fighter squadrons now. 763. But the Japanese lost 10 
times that, 7,700 aircraft. Thirty-four U.S. ships were sunk. Naval 
forces lost 4,900 sailors, killed or missing, and in naval combat when 
somebody is missing, they are gone, beneath the waves, no remains to go 
home, no grave to visit.
                              {time}  2000

  From March 17 to May 27, the U.S. Navy suffered its worst losses in 
the war; at least 90 ships sank or were out of action for 30 to 90 
days, all of that during last month, this month and next month 50 years 
ago.
  Because of Clinton's appearance in Moscow, flying over England, which 
was a grievous insult to the British and the French, all of our allies 
along the coast, the Dutch, the Belgians, the Danes, because he went to 
the European ceremonies in Moscow, in a strange way not honoring the 
fact that we fought together in an allied cause, but unfortunately 
recalling that Stalin, in his evil, he reigned for 29 years, Hitler for 
12.
  So Stalin killed millions and millions of more people than even the 
horrible Adolf Hitler. Stalin caused this conflict in Europe by signing 
a Hitler-Stalin pact in 1940. Both of them invaded Poland, cutting it 
in half. Then Stalin began to trade and gave war materials to Hitler so 
he could further crush and suppress the rest of Europe, and then as 
with all deals made with the approval of the devil, Hitler, on June 22, 
1941, shortly before our being dragged into this by Pearl Harbor at the 
end of the year, he attacks the other ugly evil force of this century, 
the Communists in Russia; unbelievable, cataclysmic events.
  Madam Speaker, I had intended to come to this floor, but I did not 
want to distract from our great vote, when McNamara's book first came 
out last month.
  I got to host a radio show for 3 hours that is hosted by Ronald 
Reagan's son, Michael, and on the show, because McNamara's book was 
prominent in the news at that time, I had two important guests. One was 
the best military writer in America today. He has got a great article 
in today's Washington Times, Col. Harry Summers, the senior editor of 
Vietnam magazine.
  Summers came on the radio with me, and I read his article from that 
day, last month, from that day's commentary section of the Washington 
Times, and he said that there were many men culpable for the terrible 
loss in Vietnam during those early years when we could have achieved a 
victory by mining Haiphong Harbor, concentrating our energies in I 
Corps, sealing the Ho Chi Minh trail, giving the Vietnamese the same 
type of aircraft we were giving the British, the Turks, and the Greeks. 
We were giving F-4 ``Phantoms'' to everybody, but in a racist way, we 
treated our South Vietnamese allies as though they were not worthy of 
top-line equipment. They might take the war north as Lee took it north 
to Antietam and Gettysburg. No, bottle them up in the South, teach them 
to be subservient, and we will handle all the artillery and all the air 
cover, so we wean them away from fighting the way they should have as a 
counter-guerrilla conflict.
  In those early years he said there were many people culpable. He even 
takes a shot at honorable General Westmoreland. He said McNamara was 
different. NcNamara was evil. Nobody has used that word on this House 
floor. I bet it has never been used in the Senate. I said on the air 
that night on 100 stations, I said, ``Colonel Summers, you are correct, 
Robert Strange McNamara is an evil man. Never in my lifetime, maybe not 
in this century, maybe not throughout the Civil War, have we had a man 
personally responsible along with President Johnson for killing so many 
Vietnamese on both sides, 2 million or more North Vietnamese.'' All the 
young soldiers and peasants
 did not understand dialectical materialism or communism, just sent 
south against B-52 strikes, all sorts of punishment before they got 
into combat where they were used on suicide raids like these Kamakazes 
or Bonzai charges.

  After Harry Summers, I had an unusual guest, an excellent American 
patriot, Tom Moorer, 4-star Navy admiral, who had been commander of the 
7th Fleet in the Pacific, and he had been CINCPAC commander for all our 
Pacific forces, the biggest geographical military command on the planet 
Earth. He then became chief of naval operations, then chairman of Joint 
Chiefs of Staff, sending memo after memo to Robert McNamara, begging 
him to mine Haiphong Harbor.
  At this time, McNamara had already made up his mind. He made up his 
mind before he put the first Marine on the beach March 8, 1965; we 
could not win, so he was feeding young kids like cannon fodder into 
this death machine while he is skiing at Snow Mass, and his son is 
avoiding the draft. I have seen him lie on Larry King and lie on the 
Tom Snyder Show. I have seen him lying all over, pushing his book, 
driving it up to No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
  [[Page H5365]] A caller called in from Montana. I believe his name 
was Bob. I hope he is watching. Bob says, ``Admiral Moorer, Bob Dornan, 
I think Robert McNamara was a war criminal.'' There was a pause, and I 
said ``Admiral, those words crossed my mind yesterday at the Vietnam 
Memorial.''
  I thought, well, liberals love to come at me for overstating the 
case, and I rejected ever using those words. ``But what do you think, 
Admiral? Is he a war criminal?'' Admiral Tom Moorer, without a blemish 
on his career, in 1942, he was flying PBY Catalinas, and they were 
painted black, and they called them ``Black Cats.'' They were actually 
using it as a patrol bomber, bombing in the Solomon Islands: 
Distinguished Flying Cross, with Silver Stars, great combat veteran, 
Admiral Tom Moorer says, ``Congressman, yes, I believe Robert McNamara 
is a war criminal.''
  Now, ladies and gentlemen, I lost my speaking privileges on this 
floor the day after the State of the Union for using a term that I will 
not complete tonight. I do not want to get into problems with our 
parliamentarian. I talked about aid and comfort to hostile powers with 
whom we were engaged in combat.
  Suffice it to say, when Wolf Blitzer asked Bill Clinton at the White 
House if he felt McNamara's book vindicated him, Clinton said, ``Yes. 
Yes, I do.'' And because he is bright, he said, ``I know it sounds 
self-serving, but, yes I do.''
  Imagine getting vindication from an evil person, a person that 
honorable men think of as a war criminal. You cannot get vindication 
there, Mr. Clinton. You just cannot!
  And I have found out since then why Mr. Clinton went to Moscow alone 
on New Year's Eve of 1969, why he woke up in Leningrad and headed to 
Moscow January 1, 1970, why he was there only 3 days, 27 degrees below 
zero, 10 inches of snow cover. It was to go to a banquet, a banquet 
that a former U.S. Senator was at in the National Hotel, the best hotel 
in town, and he was broke, freezing, and he was only there 3 days, and 
then off to Prague, the banquet, the peace banquet, and then I found 
out yesterday from a new book called ``Clinton Confidential,'' by 
George Carpozzi, I hope George is listening, I would like to help his 
book to attain a counterbalance to McNamara's book, that Clinton had 
also another trip to Moscow I never knew about, June 1991, 4 months, 
less than 4 months before he declared for the Presidency on October 3,
 1991. He was in Moscow. The Paula Jones incident was March 8, which, 
by the way, is V-E Day, and 1 month later, June 8, he has a personal 
1\1/2\-hour meeting with the head of the KGB. What the heck was that 
all about, less than 4 months before he declared to be commander in 
chief?

  So, Madam Speaker, I will say what some press people know, that I 
will be back trying to follow parliamentary rules, but if I get 
overruled. I will appeal the ruling of the Chair and I will win by a 
party-line vote. I polled my party members. I am going to discuss next 
month what the historical expression in our Constitution means about 
aid and comfort, what constitutes a hostile power, what constitutes an 
enemy force, what 58,000 deaths mean, and I will do a full hour on 
McNamara and why it is an absolute disgrace that he would rip open this 
unhealed wound of Vietnam and bring the type of agony that I have gone 
down to the wall and talked to some of these vets that they feel 
McNamara telling them it was wrong, terribly wrong, that we would try 
to free South Vietnam, help them stay free, with 44 newspapers in 
Saigon.
  I went over there eight times during that conflict. I knew what the 
mistakes were, what the corruption was. But none of it was as evil as 
the human rights violations in Hanoi or what goes on to this day this 
North Korea, in China, in conquered Vietnam, in Cuba, for that matter.
  We have a terrible century of history, and it is going out with a lot 
of bloodshed and hurt and pain, but we have still got these heroes from 
our darkest year of 1942. We have got our Walt Krells and David 
Hrdlickas.
  Something has been bothering me lately. I have been thinking about 
traveling around the country, reaching maybe way beyond my reach, to 
offer some leadership to this country, and it has to do with something 
that atheists love. They call it the natural selection. I wonder if it 
has ever occurred to anybody the worst thing that wars do to any 
nation, large or small, the best, the very best die off, while the 
worst hide out and escape and cut corners and they get rewarded during 
peace, sometimes, while the best are gone, the opposite of natural 
selection, as atheists see it by the law of the jungle.
  How many men would be running for the presidency today who had shown 
their strength of character in
 Korea or Vietnam if they had not been put into this Medal of Honor 
book as posthumous recipients of their Nation's greatest honor? There 
is only one word on that Medal of Honor: Valor. And sometimes I think 
it stands for ``veterans against lying or revisionism.''

  Mr. McNamara's book is a sacrilege and an offense from a war 
criminal, and I will not stop trying to bring out the truth until my 
last breath, and I might tell my liberal critics that all warriors hate 
war. Those who were not killed to kill another mother's son in combat, 
like myself, but were trained to be combat ready and have a small piece 
of the action of melting down the evil empire, we understand why a 
nation should honor those that died, or those that had their young 
bodies ripped apart or those that managed to escape unscathed by the 
grace only of a merciful God, a Creator.
  This Nation must come back to virtue, and our great Nation has to do 
something for the veterans, starting with the Korean veterans on July 
27, in about 2 months and a week, when a beautiful, uplifting memorial 
is dedicated.
  There are a thousand veterans that are going to turn out to confront 
Mr. Clinton if he shows up that day because in the letter to Colonel 
Holmes he also questioned our effort in Korea. I know what people who 
avoid service think. They think people are fools who go off and lose 
their lives. Well, they are not fools. They are the very essence of the 
countries' strength, and they are the salt of the Earth.
  And with that, Madam Speaker, I conclude this evenings' remarks with 
what Douglas MacArthur said, ``I shall return.''

                          ____________________