[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H139-H140]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    SUMMARY OF 4-DAY TRIP IN GERMANY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Dornan] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, I have not yet asked permission to reduce my 
1-hour special order later tonight to 5 minutes, so I will do that at 
this moment and take that 1-hour special order tomorrow night.
  Mr. Speaker, I have just returned yesterday afternoon in time to make 
the attempted overriding of Mr. Clinton's pathetic vetoing of a great 
defense authorization bill yesterday. I came back from 4 days in 
Germany. If it were not for these votes yesterday, today and tomorrow, 
I would have pressed on to Tuzla to keep my promise that I had hoped to 
be with the troops Christmas, and when voting prevented that, I said I 
would be with them at least at their departure points over New Year's, 
and I was. I would like to give a full hour report on that, but I will 
do a 5-minute summary tonight.
  First of all, on all the acrimony here in the Congress, and as 
someone who is expecting any day the glory of a 10th grandchild, I 
understand the pain of insecurity of all the Federal workers who would 
rather productively be on the job than wondering, even though I suspect 
they know in the end they will get their pay, but wondering if 
something can go wrong and they would not be fully recompensed for this 
unwanted furlough or vacation.

  But, Mr. Speaker, there is suffering taking place by American 
citizens, some very young ones, that goes far beyond the angst and the 
uncertainty and the suffering of our Federal workers here, and that is 
those on the Federal payroll in the United States military in Germany 
and Hungary and in Bosnia.
  Let me give you just a short sampling of what I am going to talk 
about tomorrow. We talked about the land mines on this floor for about 
a month, but particularly with some intensity the week before 
Christmas. John Martin Begosh, kind of an unusual, I think it is an 
Irish name, not exactly what you would say when you would step on a 
land mine, but Begosh, young John Martin, named after his dad's kid 
brother, who was killed in Vietnam, suffered a life changing injury.
  The military tried to put their best reports on this, but by the 
third day when I was over there, they finally admitted severe bone 
loss, part of his foot gone, and his surgeon said he will be disabled 
for the rest of his life, and in the coming days we will know how badly 
disabled.
  Now, we all pray that he is the exception. As I said on the House 
floor a couple of weeks ago, I expect very few casualties. I did not 
join my colleagues on both sides of the aisle predicting a nightmare. I 
know the efficiency of our military and how all three sides over there, 
Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Moslems, and Bosnian Croats, are going to 
respect the power of our military.
  We have something called a target acquisition radar, that when one of 
those evil mortars or artillery pieces that have been killing civilians 
fires at us, if and when they dare to, we will know the precise 
location of the artillery piece or the mortar before the round has 
barely reached what they are shooting at, and there will be unleashed 
upon them such accurate 155 millimeter artillery fire, we will not need 
air support, they will all be dead, and it will be a warning to the 
others you do not fool with the U.S. military.
  That does not mean that the cold and land mines are not beyond every 
description, including my own, in this House over the last 2 months. At 
the railheads in Hungary, we have men and women who have been sleeping 
in railroad cars in filth and rats in the warehouses at these spots, 
and in cold that is rivaling the severest winter since what the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Gibbons] saw with the 101st Airborne in the 
winter of 1944-45.
  It is particularly tough on the women. For those of us in this 
Chamber and the other body that said that women could take any kind of 
combat, I brought home for tomorrow night comments from women from 
Stars and Stripes that say it is OK for the men to go relieve 
themselves in the field, but where are the toilet facilities for we 
women? It is a little bit different for us.
  Down at Tuzla, these freezing nights and these tent facilities and 
sleeping in and around the vehicles was beyond their worst 
expectations. But can they cut it? You bet.
  I had never in all of my adult life, 6 years active duty, 22 in the 
reserves, and 18 years, 19 years now, going out to see our troops as a 
U.S. Congressman, I had never seen more dedicated, gung 

[[Page H140]]
ho, professional enlisted men and women and NCO's and an officer corps 
ready to do the job.
  However, do they feel some hurt that the Commander in Chief is using 
them politically? That we do not see on the television news or in the 
newspaper reports. You bet they do. To a man they feel they are being 
used, and I will talk about that tomorrow.

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