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




  IN RECOGNITION OF THE SERVICE OF MR. GEORGE MORRIS TO OUR NATION'S 
                                VETERANS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. C.W. BILL YOUNG

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, November 7, 1997

  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, as Veteran's Day draws near, I 
rise today to recognize an individual in my district who continues to 
serve his country, and his fellow veterans, more than half a century 
after his release as a prisoner of war.
  George Morris of St. Petersburg, FL has served as a volunteer at the 
Bay Pines Veterans Administration Medical Center since 1981. In his 16 
years of service, Mr. Morris has logged more than 16,200 hours as a 
volunteer. This is a remarkable feat made all the more so by the fact 
that he began volunteering at age 75.
  During his service in World War II, Mr. Morris was working in the 
Philippines as a mapmaker for the Government's Coast and Geodetic 
Survey when he was captured by the Japanese in 1941. After being 
imprisoned in the Philippines, Japan, and Korea, he was released at the 
end of the war. Mr. Morris has not forgotten those he served with and 
continues to honor their memory through his service to other veterans 
today.
  Mr. Speaker, Veteran's Day is a time to reflect on the many gifts we 
as a nation and as Americans have been given because of those men and 
women who have served in uniform here and throughout the world. This is 
a time to say thank you for those gifts. Mr. Morris paid a great price 
to protect our freedom while his was denied for so long as he was held 
as a prisoner of war 55 years ago. Today he continues to give of 
himself in service to others.
  On behalf of all my colleagues, I want to say thank you to Mr. 
Morris, and to all our Nation's veterans, for your service and 
dedication which enable us all to enjoy all the freedoms and liberties 
the United States has to offer. Our Nation is the finest nation in the 
history of mankind because of their service--both past and present.

                          ____________________