[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 134 (Thursday, August 10, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S12309]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


   THE DEATH OF A WORLD WAR II HERO, CAPT. CHARLES ASHLEY AUSTIN, JR.

 Mr. DODD. Mr. President, before Congress adjourns for recess, 
I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring a young World War II 
American pilot--Capt. Charles Ashley ``C.A.'' Austin, Jr.--whose final 
acts of courage and sacrifice, while legendary in a little village in 
France, are largely unknown to most Americans. In her quest to reveal 
her fallen husband's heroism, Etta Rizzo Austin Lepore, who lives in 
Connecticut, has sought from the Army the posthumous bestowal of the 
full range of military honors on Captain Austin.
  A choice of incredible valor ended the life of Capt. C.A. Austin. 
Jr., 50 years ago. On July 4, 1944, following a successful tactical 
bombing mission of German-occupied France, Captain Austin's P-47 
Thunderbolt airplane was shot down by enemy fire. His disabled aircraft 
careened directly toward the French village of Limetz-Villet--to the 
horror of the villagers watching from the ground. Miraculously, it 
veered off its course of destruction and crashed in a nearby cornfield. 
Captain Austin was killed in the crash. The villagers of Limetz were 
convinced that Captain Austin could have bailed out and saved himself. 
But Austin chose to stay with the plane and, by maneuvering it from its 
burning trajectory, save the lives of the helpless people of Limetz. 
Those who witnessed Captain Austin's final moments have never forgotten 
the young man who traded his own life for the lives of their families 
and neighbors. In fact, the people of Limetz-Villet defied their Nazi 
occupiers when they buried Austin with full honors.
  Because Captain Austin's plane had been separated from the squadron 
he commanded when it was hit by German antiaircraft fire, the returning 
pilots in his squadron did not know their captain's fate. He was 
reported missing in action. There were no official recommendations for 
Captain Austin to be awarded the highest military honors, namely, the 
Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Flying Cross, or the Bronze Star 
Medal, because no American serviceman had direct knowledge of the 
extraordinary circumstances of his death. In a letter from the mayor of 
Limetz, written in broken English a year after Captain Austin's death, 
Mrs. Lepore learned of the details of her husband's fate. The mayor 
wrote:

       (i)n a supreme effort the pilot succeed to place his 
     airship in straight line and by wonderful bend . . . avoid 
     the village . . . reaching a small plain far from many. . .

  The people and descendants of those whose lives and homes Captain 
Austin spared revere him to this day, and his story has been woven into 
the lore of Limetz. Recently, on the 50th anniversary of Captain 
Austin's death, the villagers erected a monument in his memory. A 
stolen propeller from the wreckage of Captain Austin's plane, the Etta 
II, serves as the centerpiece of this memorial.
  We Americans have spent much of this year commemorating and 
reflecting upon World War II--its battles and its strategy, its causes 
and consequences. We have questioned--as only latter generations can--
the course it took. We have interpreted its drama in broad 
conceptualized strokes. Captain Austin's story brings into focus the 
reality that World War II--like all wars--consisted of the acts of 
individuals, either combined in the maelstrom of battling armies or--in 
the case of Captain Austin, singled out, separated from the confidence 
of the group, in places of extremity where private conscience provided 
the only compass.
  Captain Austin's single act of grace stands out in the human 
consciousness. It fortifies a belief that something worthy of hope in 
the human spirit survives even the most brutal conflagrations of 
civilization. His is a story that ought to be told and woven into the 
American lore. Perhaps of all the characterizations of the American 
role in World War II, this is the most relevant: Hundreds of thousands 
of American soldiers sacrificed their lives for strangers--Capt. C.A. 
Austin not the least among them. And in this truth, Americans may 
glimpse a noble piece of our national identity.


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