[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 11 (Thursday, February 12, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S688-S689]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, SAM JOHNSON

  Mr. GRAMM. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to speak on on 
two topics. The first is that our dear friend and colleague, 
Congressman Sam Johnson, one of America's great warriors and one of 
America's great individuals, came home from Hanoi 25 years ago today, 
having been held as a prisoner of war for almost 7 years.
  Sam grew up in Dallas. He graduated from Southern Methodist 
University. He went into the Air Force. He became one of the great 
pilots in the postwar period. He commanded the Top Gun school. He was a 
Thunderbird.
  In fact, Senator McCain loves to tell the story about the time when 
he and Sam were campaigning together in Texas--as all of you know, 
Senator McCain was a great aviator in his own right and a great warrior 
and a real American hero--and he loves to tell the story when he and 
Sam were on a plane riding in the back and they came in pretty fast, 
and Sam calmly turned to Senator McCain and said, ``We're going to run 
off the runway.'' Senator McCain said, ``What makes you think so?'' 
just as they hit the railing and went off the runway.
  The point being that Sam Johnson was a great aviator. He was flying a 
mission over North Vietnam. He was shot down. He was taken to prison in 
Hanoi. The North Vietnamese correctly concluded that he was a diehard 
and a recalcitrant, so they put him in solitary confinement year after 
year, basically a dugout, a little dungeon.
  After 7 years in prison, enduring almost unbelievable hardship, he 
came home 25 years ago.
  Now, the remarkable thing about all this is not all the medals that 
Sam Johnson won. We honor those and we should. It is not really the 
hardship that he endured, though I doubt many of us would be capable of 
doing it. But what is remarkable to me is that after 7 years in a 
dungeon in Hanoi, Sam Johnson came home and started his life again. He 
never complained about the 7 years he lost. You never see him that he 
doesn't have a smile on his face. He is a sweet, gentle, loving man. It 
is remarkable to me that somebody could go through 7 years of that kind 
of hardship--hunger, exhaustion, fear, physical and mental abuse--and 
yet come back home and be all the things that Sam Johnson is.
  I wanted, on this 25th anniversary of the day that he came home to 
America, to stand on the floor of the Senate today and say to our 
colleague, Congressman Sam Johnson, that we are proud of him and that 
we are proud to associate with him. For most of us, the highest 
credential we are ever going to have other than being members of our 
family and being associated with our kinfolks is that we served in 
Congress. Many of us get whatever stature we might have from the 
position we hold, a position that was given to us in trust by the 
voter. But Sam Johnson is one of those rare people who brought stature 
to Congress with him when he came. He is a wonderful man. I love Sam 
Johnson.
  I think in an era where there are a lot of people who kind of think 
politicians don't represent the best that America has to offer, that 
somehow politicians aren't exactly the kind of people you want your 
children to grow up to be, I ask them to look at Congressman Sam 
Johnson. He is the kind

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of person I want my sons to grow up to be.
  On this very special day for him, 25 years ago coming home to 
America, being set free in Hanoi, I wanted to congratulate Sam and 
thank him not just for the service he provided during 29 years in the 
Air Force, not just for 7 years in a dungeon in North Vietnam, but I 
want to thank him for the service he is providing for America today. We 
appreciate that. I am very proud to have him as one of my Congressman 
representing me and my State. I am also proud to have him as a friend.
  Mr. ALLARD. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. GRAMM. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. ALLARD. My wife, Joan, and I are pleased to recognize that both 
Shirley and Sam are very close friends of ours. I had come to the floor 
to speak on another matter but I feel so fortunate to have been here at 
the time you are making these comments.
  You are right on the mark. He is a tremendous individual. He suffered 
in a way that many of us cannot imagine. Both Joan and I are so 
enthralled with his positive attitude--both Shirley and Sam--that it 
makes him stand out as a remarkable individual, remarkable Americans.
  I second your comments.
  Mr. GRAMM. I thank my dear colleague from Colorado for adding to my 
comments.

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