[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 156 (Saturday, November 8, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2239-E2240]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         53D ANNIVERSARY REMEMBRANCE OF THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. WILLIAM F. GOODLING

                            of PENNSYLVANIA

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, November 7, 1997

  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the veterans of the Battle 
of the Bulge, who came together with friends and family on their 53d 
anniversary to dedicate a monument to the courage of the soldiers, 
living and dead, who fought, in the most important battles ever 
undertaken by the U.S. Army.
  My sister was an army nurse who treated the sick and wounded in field 
hospitals during this great battle. Joseph F. Zimmer, a member of the 
87th Infantry Division, read the following essay, Reflections. I 
commend this essay to my colleagues' attention.
  Once again we meet to recall and honor those days, those men, those 
warriors who saved the day in the historic Battle of the Bulge of World 
War II.
  As WWII gets even more remote from people's personal experiences, it, 
and this battle, are going to become even more attractive and 
memorable. In 100 years, even at the end of the 3rd millennium, people 
are going to flock to see the memorials that mark, for all time, those 
dark, dank, foggy days in Belgium and Luxembourg. The valor, bravery, 
courage, and heroics have been spoken of, written about, and 
memorialized in uncountable plaques and monuments in our country, most 
recently at Carlisle, and those far away villages and towns where 
heroes died, were captured, wounded, or escaped unharmed.
  Emerson said ``Every hero becomes a bore at last.'' Nevertheless, the 
storytelling will insure that our journey to this sacred place at 
Gettysburg, and the unknown future will keep us connected to one 
another, to what we experienced in the Bulge during those terrifying 
times, our inherited strength, and, most especially, to those who have 
gone before us. Life became death, the shatterer of worlds. We live in 
the present without being obsessed about the past or worried about the 
future. We constantly strive to discover the significance of our 
experiences and in our minds we are constantly standing on holy ground. 
The bitterest tears shed over a grave are for words left unsaid and 
deeds left undone. (Harriet Beecher Stowe)
  What we forget is that this country had about 120 million people 
during those war years. Out of that number there were only about 20 
million men between the ages of 17 and 36--and four out of five of them 
went to war, joined by over 100,000 women. Beginning in 1939 with our 
Armed Forces numbering about 174,000 men, ranking 17th in the world 
behind such nations as Bulgaria and Portugal, we turned into a global 
fighting force of more than 8 million, an army without which the allies 
could not have defeated Nazi Germany and Japan. In all of this it is 
worthwhile to remember some words of war. They were uttered by Joshua 
Chamberlain when he returned to the battle field many years after his 
heroics on Little Round Top: ``In great deeds something abides. On 
great fields something stays,'' says the old soldier ``Generations that 
know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by 
whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this 
deathless field, to ponder and dream'' This too can be said about all 
the areas we fought in during the Battle of the Bulge.
  The history of the world, like letters without poetry, flowers 
without fragrance, or thought without imagination, would be a dry 
matter indeed without its legends. And yet many of these, though 
scorned by proof of a hundred times, seem worth preserving for their 
own familiar sakes. What we did, what we experienced, represents the 
engrafted love of our country, our fellow citizens, and of freedom. In 
the suburbs of our hearts, we remember that we were part of a gathering 
of the noblest of men who ever lived in the tides of times. We feel 
that we must draw on our history to describe our history. It fits each 
of us to a ``t''--honesty, loyalty, integrity. ``The spirit of man is 
god-like, eternal, indestructible,'' said Norman Mailer in his WWII 
book, The Naked and the Dead. This spirit is reflected in the selfless 
sacrifices made by army nurses, doctors and medics, the women who 
waited--a mother, wife, sister, even a daughter, maybe, had their daily 
hell as well.
  Our organization, Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge, remains a 
vessel for each of us to pour our memories and values into, and yet we 
don't have to run to catch up with our selves. Our founders, present 
and past presidents, our leaders, are owed a great debt of gratitude to 
afford us a vehicle, and these reunions, in the company of our 
companions, to once again gather together, to keep alive in the special 
vault of the national imagination, the gallantry, uncommon glory and 
sacrifices made during that great battle. Each of the 19,000 who died, 
every drop of blood shed, invigorated our Nation and other nations as 
well as Western civilization. They were among the 292,131 men and women 
that were killed in battle in WWII; another 115,000 did under

[[Page E2240]]

other conditions. These are not just statistics--these are persons. Our 
being here is important for when we pass on. You don't just lose the 
glamorous culture we survived in, you lose the whole culture that we 
stood for and in a way fought for.
  It is good to be reminded that there are such men, that there always 
have been and always will be. ``We sometimes forget, I think,'' said 
historian, Stephen Ambrose, ``that you can manufacture weapons, and you 
can purchase ammunition, but you can't buy valor and you can't pull 
heroes off a assembly line'' Each of us veterans of VBOB can be very 
proud this day and every day. We are all still heroes, and we do not 
take lightly being called a hero.
  Who knows what our comradeship means, but surely it means more than 
just that we are all haunted by ghosts; because they are not just 
echoes of voices that have years since ceased to speak, but the murmur 
of heroes, in the sense that, through them, something of the power and 
richness of life itself, not only touched us once long ago, but 
continues to touch us today as we meet. Let us be worthy of this 
heritage as we continue to meet from time to time in our chapter 
meetings, our executive national reunions to see that it is 
memorialized and never forgotten.
  In our vintage years remember: yesterday is history; tomorrow is a 
mystery; today is a gift--that's why it is called ``the present.''
  Finally, legend has it that when we leave this world and get to our 
enternal abode in heaven, the God we believe in returns to us our best 
self. It is not difficult to see that what we all were during WWII, and 
what we became mirrors our best selves. What we did and how we 
performed in the Battle of the Bulge surely added to our luster. 
Godspeed to each and everyone here.

                          ____________________