[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 81 (Tuesday, June 12, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S6120]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         NATIONAL AIRBORNE DAY

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I rise in support of Senate Resolution 
16 designating August 16, 2001, as National Airborne Day. It is only 
too appropriate that Senator Thurmond lead the charge for designating 
one day annually on which we recognize the contributions of our 
airborne divisions in the military.
  The greatest amphibious invasion in military history was at Normandy. 
On June 6, 1944, under the leadership of General Eisenhower, an 
invasion force of over 2.8 million military members, including 
1,627,000 Americans gathered in Southern England. These forty-five 
divisions included Americans, Brits, Canadians, French and Poles 
fighting alongside one another.
  Among those forty-five divisions were 13,000 paratroopers from the 
82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. These paratroopers and glider troops 
began their assault at 1:00 a.m. on June 6. They were spread out over 
50 miles between the Cotentin Peninsula and the Orne River. Met with 
ferocious and lethal German resistance, by the end of the day the 101st 
had suffered 1,240 casualties, and the 82nd lost 1,259 men. Then 41-
year-old Strom Thurmond survived and went on to win five battle stars.
  We suffered heavy casualties in those first hours of fighting on the 
coasts of Northern France. U.S. casualties alone totaled 6,603 men. 
However, D Day marked the first step in our push toward victory in 
Europe. Not only does D Day mark the beginning of the end of the 
tyrannical forces unleashed on the Western European continent in the 
1930s, it represents the beginning of many decades of struggle to 
reconstruct democratic and free Nations from the rubble of World War 
II.
  This week we celebrate the 57th Anniversary of D-Day. I stand to 
recognize the valor of that greatest generation who persevered to 
protect our freedom. Undeniably, the airborne forces played a vital 
role in achieving victory. The Airborne divisions that fought on D-Day 
are still represented in today's Army, with the 82nd in Fort Bragg, NC, 
and the 101st in Fort Campbell, KY.
  In the last sixty years, our airborne forces have performed in 
important military and peace-keeping operations in World War II, Korea, 
Vietnam, Lebanon, Sinai, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Somalia, 
Haiti, and Bosnia. On August 16, 2001, the 61st anniversary of the 
first official parachute jump by the Parachute Test Platoon, we will 
recognize the role of part and current patriots in our airborne forces.
  I thank Senator Thurmond for his unyielding courage as a paratrooper 
and his vision as a leader. I strongly support this resolution.

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