[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 170 (Tuesday, October 31, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H11577]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               TRIBUTE TO THE HONORABLE ROBERT K. DORNAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas, Mr. Sam Johnson, is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I will enter into a colloquy 
with the gentleman from California [Mr. Hunter].
  I want to talk about a friend of mine, Bob Dornan from California, 
and the reason I want to talk about him is because he was a great 
fighter pilot. At one time, he flew F-100's out there, and you know, I 
always said fighter pilots do it better than anybody. And Bob came up 
here and proved it, and in fact, the gentleman from California, Mr. 
Hunter, and I and the gentleman from California, Mr. Cunningham, and 
Dornan consider that name that he stuck on us as Tiger Flight as a real 
honor to be a part of a group like that.
  Let me just tell you what he did, because we are talking about Bosnia 
now and the possibility of sending troops in. Every time you turn 
around, Dornan is in there at the hot spot trying to find out what 
really went on, and let me just refresh your memory about Somalia, 
which was a disaster for the United States.
  He flew in there in a chopper over the site where our chopper was 
shot down and those troops were killed, and found out that they could 
have very easily gotten those guys out, very easily blocked the troops, 
brought pictures back which I saw, and with two or three tanks they 
could have locked them up and rescued our forces. They did not do that.
  Do you know why? Because they were under U.N. control, and the U.N. 
faulted in their chain of command, which we face here in Bosnia, the 
same sort of thing, even though it is NATO. There were Italian tanks 
there, but they were unable to do the coordination to get them there in 
time.
  Bob Dornan brought the evidence back. Guess what, we pulled out of 
Somalia with those losses and just wrote those guys off. I do not think 
that we want to write off any more Americans anywhere in this world.
  It was kind of a quagmire over there, and Bob went over there, 
``Bullet Bob'' as they called him, because he is fast on the trigger 
and he shoots at liberals without an instant's hesitation.
  I yield to the gentleman form California [Mr. Hunter].
  Mr. HUNTER. I thank my friend for yielding.
  You know, I am reminded, in Somalia, because Bob Dornan is a guy who 
really dedicates himself to this Chamber and to his obligation as a 
U.S. Congressman, and while the rest of us were doing a few things on 
Somalia, we were getting the briefings, we were participating in the 
few areas where Members of Congress were given some leave by the 
administration to register our feelings, but Bob Dornan went to 
Somalia.
  Going there and back, I think is about a 40-hour plane ride which 
none of us would look forward to, and in the end, Bob Dornan contacted 
every family of a uniformed service member who was killed in Somalia, 
and he talked to them, and he let them know how much they were 
appreciated, and their loved ones were appreciated. He did a total 
analysis of the situation and reported back to those of us on the 
Committee on Armed Services, in fact, to the whole Congress in great 
detail.
  Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Did he not go see some of them?
  Mr. HUNTER. Absolutely. He went to see a number of the family members 
of people who had died and members of people who had been wounded, 
members of the uniformed services who had been wounded. I can remember 
members of the families sitting, coming, driving or flying from their 
homes around the United States to be here in this Chamber and meet Bob 
and listen to his description of what happened.
  So Bob was a great ambassador, not just for the uniformed service 
members themselves but for their families. I think that is 
representative of everything he has done. He has been, as you said, to 
every single military hot spot around the world. He goes there when it 
is hot.
  He went to Vietnam literally dozens of times, and a person who really 
cares about the security of this Nation. You know, he is the only 
Member of this body who is running for President, and I think he is a 
great candidate. And he is a guy who, it is kind of interesting that 
Bob Dornan is probably the most unpolitical for a guy who has been in 
Congress for 20 years or more, the most unpolitical Member of this 
body, because he rarely does things that make sense purely from a 
political standpoint, from an analytical, how will this advance my 
career, how will this help me, how will this position assist me from my 
standpoint.
  I can remember when I was a freshman in this House, and we were 
competing for the Armed Services seat that came up in California with 
the retirement of one of our senior Members, and all of those who were 
competing for that seat, myself included, would get up and make a 
speech. Then we would have, at the end of the speeches, we would have a 
vote by the members of the California delegation as to who got that 
seat, and Bob Dornan  got up and started to speak for himself as all 
the rest of us had. We all were self-promoters except Bob. Halfway 
through the speech, he stopped and said, ``You know, we really should 
give this seat to Duncan Hunter, a Vietnam veteran from San Diego.'' He 
gave about 5 reasons why we should vote for me. He said. ``I am voting 
for Duncan,'' and sat down. I won the seat as a result of that.
  I think Members of the body looked at Bob and said, ``Why would you 
do that? That was the most unpolitical thing you could do. You had a 
good chance of winning it yourself.''
  But a few years later, here is Bob Dornan back not only as a member 
of that committee, the Committee on National Security, but also the 
chairman of the Personnel Subcommittee where he has done a lot this 
year to make lives better for our military families, and he is also the 
chairman of a very important subcommittee in the Intelligence 
Committee, which is the Technical and Tactical Intelligence 
Subcommittee.

                              {time}  2000

  As the gentleman mentioned, Bob Dornan has a lot of smarts with 
respect especially to national security. I thank the gentleman for 
yielding.

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