[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 150 (Thursday, December 7, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2146]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                GEN. JUSKOWIAK'S REMARKS BEAR REPEATING

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MAC COLLINS

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, December 7, 2000

  Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Speaker, I was privileged recently to hear Major 
General Terry Juskowiak speak about the role of the soldier in the 
United States. I was impressed by what he had to say, and would like to 
submit his remarks in the Congressional Record:

       It is truly an honor for me to be here today and to 
     participate in this luncheon honoring Veterans--past and 
     present.
       Do we have any Jeff Foxworthy fans here? Let me do a take 
     off on Jeff and say . . .
       You might be a veteran if:
       Your spouse responds to ``hooah'' and understands what it 
     means regardless of the context you present it in.
       You might be a veteran if . . . when you go camping, you 
     ridicule other campers for setting up their tent down wind 
     and down slope of the latrine.
       You might be a veteran if . . . you still have an urge to 
     line up your shoes under your bed.
       Or . . . your two-year old calls everyone in BDUs 
     ``daddy.'' You might be a veteran if . . . when your kids are 
     too noisy, you announce ``at ease!''
       You might be a veteran if . . . you've seen the movie 
     ``Patton'' enough times to memorize his speech.
       Or . . . cable news is your favorite program. The History 
     channel is your next favorite.
       You might be a veteran if . . . you ruin movies for 
     everyone around you by pointing out the unrealistic military 
     scenes.
       And the biggest indicator you might be a veteran is
       . . . if you understood and related to this list!!!
       In a little over a week, our nation will observe Veterans 
     Day. To some Americans, it will be viewed simply as a day off 
     from work; a day to kick back and relax.
       We all would be wise to instead recognize it as a 
     significant national holiday . . . a day where we pause and 
     honor all veterans who have served to fight for and protect 
     the freedoms we enjoy--to enjoy our prosperity and our 
     freedom to be able to kick back and relax.
       As George Orwell wrote. ``We sleep safely in our beds 
     because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence 
     on those who would do us harm.''
       If you like your freedoms--thank a veteran.
       I would ask the Veterans with us here today to please stand 
     up. Ladies and gentlemen, let's recognize these distinguished 
     individuals.
       Let's pause for a moment and seriously reflect on just what 
     is a veteran.
       Some veterans bear visible signs of their service; a 
     missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.
       Others may carry the evidence inside of them, a pin holding 
     a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg--or perhaps 
     another sort of inner steel. The soul's ally forged in the 
     refinery of adversity.
       Except in parades, however, the men and women who have 
     served their country and kept it safe, wear no badge or 
     emblem. You can't tell a vet just by looking.
       Most veterans live quietly and anonymously among us. They 
     are our grandparents to some, parents to other's, brothers 
     and sisters to many.
       Just who is a veteran? A veteran might be the elderly 
     gentleman at the supermarket--palsied now and aggravatingly 
     slow--who helped liberate a Nazi death camp in WWII and who 
     wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold 
     him when the nightmares come.
       He is the retiring businessman whose co-workers never 
     guessed that behind his quiet demeanor is the hero of four 
     hours of exquisite bravery against near impossible odds--50 
     years ago, in the bitter cold, near the 38th parallel of 
     Korea.
       She--or he--is the nurse who fought against futility and 
     went to sleep sobbing every night for a solid year in the 
     heat of Vietnam.
       He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi 
     Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure armored 
     personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.
       He is the POW who went away one person and came back 
     another--or didn't come back at all.
       He--or she--is the person who served in the garrisons and 
     training fields of our country. Who did not deploy, but 
     served in ways that don't grab headlines. Who kept on doing 
     what we are paid to do--training soldiers. And who played a 
     critical role in caring for the families left behind.
       A veteran is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb of the 
     Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery 
     must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes 
     whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield, 
     or the ocean's sunless depths.
       Or close to home, a vet is a 22-year-old sailor named 
     Cherone Gunn, who left his aunt and uncle's house (Mr. and 
     Mrs. Taylor) in Rex, GA to join the Navy, serve his country 
     and get some experience. But instead, while serving aboard 
     the U.S.S. Cole, was killed in the prime of his life by a 
     senseless terrorist act.
       A veteran is an ordinary and yet extraordinary human being. 
     A person who offered some of his life's most vital years in 
     the service of our country, and who sacrificed his ambitions, 
     and all too often his life, so others would not have to 
     sacrifice theirs.
       A veteran is a soldier, sailor, airman or marine. A 
     citizen--a ``regular guy or gal'' who answered our country's 
     call to service.
       A veteran is America's sword against the darkness, the 
     embodiment of the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the 
     finest, greatest nation ever known.
       A veteran is an American citizen who also embodies the 
     words of Oliver Wendell Holmes:
       ``What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny 
     matters compared to what lies within us.''
       Because a veteran sees service to our country as an affair 
     of the heart.
       I'd like to share with you for a minute a short poem whose 
     authorship is unknown. It is entitled ``It's the Soldier!'' 
     But it speaks to all service members . . . to all service 
     members of this magnificently free country:

     It's the Soldier!
     When the country has been in need, it has
     Always Been The Soldier!
     It's the soldier, not the newspaper which has given us
     the freedom of the press--
     It's the soldier not the poet, who has given us the freedom 
           of speech--
     It's the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us 
           the freedom to demonstrate--
     It's the soldier, who salutes the flag, and serves under the 
           flag--
     It's the soldier whose coffin is draped with the flag,
     Who allows the protester to burn the flag--
     And, it's the soldier who is called upon to defend our way of 
           life!

       Millions of Americans have served this country since the 
     days of the American Revolution, Many have made the ultimate 
     sacrifice. And many are buried at Arlington or a host of 
     other national and private cemeteries at home and abroad.
       The road we have traveled to get to where the world is 
     today was made possible by the sacrifices of our veterans, 
     and their families.
       So remember, each time you see someone who has served our 
     country, just lean over and say ``Thank you.'' That is all 
     most people need, and in most cases, it will mean more than 
     any medal they could have been awarded.
       I keep a poem with me when I am deployed. At home, it also 
     sits on my desk. Its author is a Vietnam veteran, George L. 
     Skypeck.
       George's poem reminds me of how proud I am of my 
     profession. I'd like to share it with you. It has special 
     meaning to me--I'm sure it will to our veterans and their 
     families as we pause to honor them on this special occasion:

     I was that which others did not want to be.
     I went where others feared to go, and did what others failed 
           to do.
     I asked nothing from those who gave nothing and reluctantly 
           accepted the thought of eternal loneliness . . . should 
           I fail.
     I have seen the face of terror, felt the stinging cold of 
           fear, and enjoyed the sweet taste of a moment's love.
     I have cried, pained and hoped . . . but most of all,
     I have lived times others would say were best forgotten.
     At least someday I will be able to say that I was proud of 
           what I was . . . A Soldier.

       On behalf of a very grateful nation, I thank all veterans 
     and their families for their sacrifices and their service.
       Americans can sleep safely at night. And Americans owe you 
     an eternal debt of gratitude.

     

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