[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 156 (Saturday, November 8, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12203-S12204]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  PRIVATE RELIEF OF JOHN ANDRE CHALOT

  The bill (H.R. 2732) was considered, ordered to a third reading, read 
the third time, and passed.
  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, these two bills will provide relief for 
two men who have fought with valor and honor for this country. H.R. 
2731 and H.R. 2732 will provide justice for two Americans by correcting 
the date they became U.S. citizens.
  One of these men, John Andre Chalot, resides in my home State of 
Florida. Mr. Chalot, a retired postal worker living in Bradenton, FL, 
was born in Le Havre, France, on December 19, 1919. He immigrated to 
the United States with his parents in 1921. After being graduated from 
high school in 1939, he sought to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps. 
Because he was considered too young to fly in the corps he moved to 
Canada, joined the Royal Canadian Air Force [RCAF], and received his 
pilot wings. He flew Spitfires with the RCAF based in England from 1940 
to 1943. While still in England, Mr. Chalot transferred to the U.S. 
Army Corps, 358th fighter Squadron, and received a commission as second 
lieutenant. At the time of his commission in 1943, Mr. Chalot had 
completed the naturalization process to become a U.S. citizen. 
Unfortunately, our Government misplaced Mr. Chalot's naturalization 
forms somewhere in the process.
  Early in 1944, while flying a routine P-51 mission over Germany, Mr. 
Chalot's plane was fired upon and hit, causing him to crash-land in 
Holland. With the help of the Resistance, Mr. Chalot managed to get to 
Paris, but in July 1944, he was betrayed by Gestapo agents and confined 
at Fresnes Prison.
  In August 1944, Germans crowded Mr. Chalot and 168 Allied airmen into 
boxcars and transported them to Buchenwald concentration camp. There 
they were confined in miserable, degrading, and inhumane conditions, 
forced to subsist on a starvation diet, and subjected to Nazi medical 
experiments. In November 1944, Mr. Chalot and most of his fellow airmen 
were transferred from Buchenwald to Luftstalag III, an infamous subcamp 
of Buchenwald, where they remained until their liberation at the end of 
the war.

[[Page S12204]]

  After the war, Mr. Chalot returned to the United States, and was 
finally naturalized as a U.S. citizen on September 18, 1945.
  On September 20, 1996, he applied to the Foreign Claims Settlement 
Commission for compensation pursuant to the Agreement Between the 
United States and Germany Concerning Final Benefits To Certain United 
States Nationals Who Were Victims of National Socialist Measures of 
Persecution.
  On September 5, 1997, the Commission denied Mr. Chalot's claim on the 
ground that he was not a U.S. citizen during his time as a Nazi 
prisoner of war and was, therefore, ineligible for compensation. H.R. 
2731 would modify the date Mr. Chalot became a U.S. citizen and make 
him eligible for compensation under the Agreement Between the Federal 
Republic of Germany and the United States of America.
  The other bill, H.R. 2732, provides relief for Mr. Roy Desmond Moser, 
a Massachusetts resident with an almost identical situation.
  This legislation would make Mr. Chalot and Mr. Moser eligible for 
compensation by deeming them to be naturalized U.S. citizens as of the 
dates they began their military service.
  Mr. President, I believe that these two bills provide relief for two 
courageous men who fought for our Nation during World War II. I hope my 
colleagues understand the personal significance of these measures for 
these two individuals.

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