[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 150 (Tuesday, October 20, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2253]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             PURPLE HEART AND POW MEDALS FOR JOSEPH LAJZER

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CIRO D. RODRIGUEZ

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 20, 1998

  Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, on September 18, 1998, National Prisoner 
of War/Missing In Action Recognition Day, our nation finally honored 
one of the few remaining heroes and survivors of the Bataan Death 
March. During the graduation of new air men and women from basic 
training at Lackland Air Force Base, Retired Army Air Corps World War 
II veteran Tech. Sgt. Joseph Lajzer was awarded the Purple Heart and 
POW medals for injuries sustained more than 56 years ago in the jungles 
of the Philippines.
  Joseph Lajzer volunteered for the Army in 1941 at the age of twenty. 
He was trained as a tanker and his unit, B Company of the 192d Tank 
Battalion, was sent to Clark Field in the Philippines. Not long after 
the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese attacked and landed in the 
Philippines. After many days of intense fighting and desperately short 
of medical supplies, food, and ammunition, Mr. Lajzer's unit was 
captured on April 8, 1942. The following day the tragic Battan Death 
March began.
  The horrors of the six day march defy any description. Nearly 650 
American soldiers along with thousands of Filipino soldiers died during 
the march. For the next three and one half years, Lajzer endured 
unspeakable pestilence, starvation, and brutality while in captivity. 
Joseph Lajzer was finally liberated on September 6, 1945, but had to 
endure additional months in military hospitals recovering from injuries 
inflicted by his Japanese captors.
  Tech. Sgt. Lajzer's services to our nation didn't end after his 
release. He went on to serve for a total of 25 years, retiring from the 
United States Air Force in 1966. In spite of his extraordinary service 
in uniform, Lajzer was never formally recognized. He waited patiently 
for more than twenty years while administrative and other delays 
prevented the award of the Purple Heart and the POW medals to this 
deserving American. Finally, on September 18, 1998, our nation 
recognized and honored Tech. Sgt. Lajzer.

          A Soldier by an Unknown Author at Bataan/Corregidor

     A soldier is a nobody, we hear lots of people say. He is the 
           outcast of the world and always in the way.
     We admit there are bad ones from the Army to the Marines, but 
           the majority you will find, the most worthy ever seen.
     Most people condemn the soldier when he stops to take a drink 
           or two, but does a soldier condemn you, when you stop 
           to take a few.
     Now don't scorn the soldier but clasp him by the hand, for 
           the uniform he wears means protection to our land.
     The government picks its soldier from the million far and 
           wide, so please place him as your equal good buddies 
           side by side.
     When a soldier goes to battle you cheer him on the way, you 
           say he is a hero when in the ground he lay.
     But the hardest battle of the soldier is in the time of 
           peace, when all mock and scorn him and treat him like a 
           beast.
     With these few lines we close sir, we hope we don't offend 
           but when you meet a soldier just treat him like a 
           friend.

           

                          ____________________