[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 164 (Thursday, November 18, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H12890]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TRAGEDY AT TEXAS A&M

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, as one of the last speakers to 
speak in this chamber in this century in terms of other than the purely 
procedural motion, it is with great sadness that I rise this evening to 
talk of a terrible tragedy that happened early this morning in College 
Station, Texas.
  The university where I graduated from in 1972 and where my father 
graduated from in 1947, where my son graduated from in 1993, and my 
daughter in 1997, has a tradition called Bonfire. Students spend 
several months going out and first cutting down the logs and then 
transporting the logs to the campus, and then once on campus, sorting 
them out and stacking them together to create a bonfire which some 
years has been over 100 feet tall, and which this year was somewhere 
about 40 feet tall and was scheduled to be about 60 feet tall. Earlier 
this morning, somewhere between 2:30 and 3 a.m., the bonfire stack 
catastrophically collapsed, sending 50 to 60 students that were on the 
stack plummeting down. Unfortunately, at least six of them have been 
killed; over 20 have been injured. There are still five unaccounted 
for, and there is a possibility that the death toll could rise to over 
10 students.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a terrible tragedy for Texas A&M it is a 
terrible tragedy for the families of the victims; it is a terrible 
tragedy for young people in our country. It is a sad, sad day in 
College Station, Texas.
  Texas A&M truly is a family. There are over 250,000 living former 
students of Texas A&M, and the Aggie family, literally all over the 
world, is in shock and mourning for the students and their families, 
the students that were injured and killed and their families.
  Mr. Speaker, there are a number of other Aggie traditions, one of 
which, unfortunately, will have to be utilized in the very near future. 
Silver Taps is a tradition at Texas A&M where any student that dies 
while an active student, there is a ceremony on campus where all of the 
lights are turned out in the evening, all the students gather at a 
common area in front of the academic building and Silver Taps are 
played. So sometime in December, there will be Silver Taps for the 
students that were killed earlier this morning and Aggies mourn their 
passing.
  There is a memorial service that is going on as we speak. The 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady), whose district Texas A&M is located 
in, flew down to College Station earlier this afternoon to be with the 
students there as they have that memorial service this evening.
  The bonfire has been held every year but one year since 1909. In 
1963, after the assassination of President Kennedy, the bonfire was 
canceled. That is the only time that it has been canceled until next 
week. Because of the tragic accident, there will be no bonfire at Texas 
A&M next week before the football game between Texas University and 
Texas A&M.
  Mr. Speaker, again, I rise in strongest sympathy this evening. I 
would ask all of my colleagues in the House of Representatives to pray 
for the families whose children have been killed or injured. I have one 
more daughter, Kristin, who is a senior in high school this year, and 
she hopes to attend Texas A&M. It is my hope that the A&M 
administration, President Bowen, who is an excellent academic leader 
and faculty leader at Texas A&M, will conduct a full investigation of 
this accident. If there is a way to find a cause and to prevent it from 
happening in the future, I know that he will do that, but I also hope 
that we do not cancel the bonfire in the future.
  Again, hundreds of thousands of former students of Texas A&M have 
participated in the bonfire. With almost no exceptions, those who have 
participated have nothing but the warmest, fondest memories. We need to 
grieve for our students who lost their lives early this morning; we 
need to support the investigation to find the cause of that 
catastrophic accident, and hopefully we can come up with safety 
procedures so that the bonfire can continue in the future.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that all of my colleagues pray for the families of 
those students who lost their lives early this morning at Texas A&M.

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