[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 128 (Thursday, August 3, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1617]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


     HONORING THOSE WHO SERVED THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM IN WORLD WAR II

                                 ______


                            HON. JACK FIELDS

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, August 3, 1995
  Mr. FIELDS of Texas. Mr. Speaker, for America, World War II began on 
a day that will live in infamy, and it ended at the dawn of the nuclear 
age. In between those two events, America and the world as a whole 
changed forever, as did the lives of each and every American alive at 
that time.
  Americans have begun observing the 50th anniversary of the end of 
World War II--a horrible war that inflicted more pain, death and 
destruction on the world than any conflict before it or since. It was a 
war that claimed the lives of more than 1 million young Americans 
struggling to defend liberty here at home and around the world. It was 
war that injured and maimed hundreds of thousands of military personnel 
and civilians alike. It was a war in which young men demonstrated 
superhuman courage and determination in places like Pointe du Hoc and 
Iwo Jima. And it was a war in which others demonstrated almost inhuman 
depravity in places like Auschwitz and Dachau.
  It was in which my father, Jack Fields, Sr., fought as a bombardier 
aboard a B-24 Liberator in Europe.
  But why did he and millions of other peace-loving Americans, eagerly 
answer the call to take up arms during World War II?
  Like millions of other young men in towns and cities across this 
great country, my father joined the war effort because he knew that 
there are things worth fighting, and dying, for: ideals like freedom 
and democracy, and places like America in which those ideals had been 
brought to life. Like millions of other veterans, he did his part in a 
worldwide effort to free those who had been conquered and enslaved by 
the forces of darkness. Countless young Americans traveled far from 
their homes, risked their lives and endured terrible hardships to 
defeat the forces that had, temporarily, defeated democracy in western 
Europe and throughout much of Asia. They did so as well because they 
knew that the cause in which they were engaged was just. They knew that 
God would watch over them, as He had always watched over America. And 
they knew that with His help, they would prevent the flame of freedom 
from flickering out on this planet.
  Many brave young men gave their lives in that successful struggle to 
ensure that freedom lived on. Many more suffered wounds and injuries 
that changed their lives forever. Most, thank God, just returned home, 
found jobs and raised their families. But they, too, were changed by 
the war. They knew first-hand its horrors, but they knew that it had 
been necessary to preserve the American way of life that too many of 
our citizens take for granted.
  The men who fought and won World War II were, for the most part, 
ordinary Americans from ordinary towns across our country. But they had 
accomplished an extraordinary feat: they had preserved freedom in 
America and England; they had restored freedom to France; and they had 
helped bring about a rebirth of freedom in post-war Germany, Italy, and 
Japan. The world, then, not only America, owes each and every one of 
them a huge debt of thanks.
  But America owes them even more. It owes them this solemn promise: 
that each of us will do everything we can to keep America militarily 
strong--so strong that never again will young Americans be called upon 
to fight and die in a world war to defend democracy and freedom, 
because no one will ever again dare threaten democracy and freedom 
anywhere around the world.


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