[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 79 (Wednesday, June 21, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1067]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD MARKS 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF ACTIVATION IN 
                               KOREAN WAR

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                          HON. JOHN B. LARSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 21, 2000

  Mr. LARSON. Mr. Speaker, today I mark a very significant anniversary 
in the history of the Connecticut National Guard. Fifty years ago this 
week, the Connecticut National Guard's Company K, 169th Infantry 
Regiment, 43d Division was called into active duty for service in the 
Korean war.
  On June 25, 1950, Communist-supported North Korea invaded South Korea 
by crossing the 38th Parallel. That same day President Harry S. Truman 
began the activation of the National Guard. It was only a few short 
months after Truman's activation that Connecticut's National Guard 
received its official orders from the United States Army. On September 
5, 1950, at 7:15 a.m., Company K, based in the Middlesex County, 
reported for roll call.
  The Company, along with the rest of the Division, was sent to Camp 
Pickett in Virginia for training. On July 19, 1951, the Division 
received its orders to report for overseas duty in Germany. The 43d 
Infantry Division was the first National Guard Division ever to go to 
Europe in peacetime. Its orders were part of a determined effort to 
strengthen the free world's defenses against Russian aggression.
  In name, it stayed there for more than 2\1/2\ years. Company K went 
into the portions of Bavaria that directly faced the Iron Curtain on 
the Czechoslovakian border. There it organized the terrain and built a 
defense system as part of a strengthening NATO force.
  A June 25, 1990 article in U.S. News and World Report aptly describes 
the reason why Company K's involvement was so crucial in the Korean 
War, ``The War's effects were felt far from its battlefields. Worried 
that Korea was only a diversion in advance of a Soviet attack on 
Berlin, the Truman Administration sent four divisions to Europe to 
bolster the two already on occupation duty and began pressing to 
transform occupied West Germany into a rearmed anti-Communist 
bastion.''
  On June 25, 2000, the members of Company K will hold their 50th 
Anniversary Reunion. I would like to urge my colleagues to join me not 
only in celebrating their anniversary, but also in recognizing the 
service and sacrifice these individuals gave to their country in its 
time of need.

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