[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 103 (Tuesday, July 28, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H6493]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               IN TRIBUTE

  (Mrs. MORELLA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. MORELLA. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to two heroes, 
Private First Class Jacob Joseph Chestnut and Detective John Michael 
Gibson of the U.S. Capitol Police, who sacrificed their lives not only 
for those of us in Congress and for the staff and for the tourists, but 
for all of the American people.
  J.J. Chestnut guarded the main entrance. John Gibson was assigned to 
Majority Whip Tom DeLay. Both were veterans of the force, took their 
responsibilities seriously, so much so that in saving the lives of 
others, they lost their own.
  We take this safety for granted. Who could ever imagine a shooting in 
the Nation's Capitol, the shrine of liberty and justice to all? Who 
could ever imagine the death of two officers because of that shooting?
  We shall miss these men who guided us, who cheered us, who cared for 
us, who asked us about our families and we inquired about theirs, who 
shared their interests, always there, alert and responsive. We will 
miss them, yes, but they leave behind them their wives without 
husbands, their children without fathers, the Capitol Police without 
two colleagues.
  We offer our condolences to Officer Chestnut's widow Wen Ling and his 
five children, Joseph, Janece, Janet, Karen and William; and to 
Detective Gibson's widow Evelyn and his three children, Kristen, John 
and Daniel. Those of us who are Americans, who are part of the Capitol 
Hill family, are in mourning over the senseless loss of these two fine 
men, all across Washington and across the Nation.
  I want to close with a quote from Thornton Wilder who said, ``There 
is the land of the living and the land of the dead, and the bridge is 
love, the only survival and the only meaning.'' This is the love that 
they leave behind and this is the love we give to them and to their 
families.

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