[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 42 (Tuesday, April 16, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H1309]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             TRIBUTE TO LIEUTENANT (J.G.) RAFE WYSHAM, USN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to pay tribute 
to a young Oregonian serving our country abroad as part of Operation 
Enduring Freedom. Lieutenant Junior Grade Rafe Wysham, a native of 
Madras, Oregon, is currently assigned as an F-14 Radar Intercept 
Officer aboard the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy in the Arabian sea.
  Mr. Speaker, Lt. Wysham is a third-generation naval officer. His 
grandfather, a veteran of the Second World War, served on a destroyer 
and received the Purple Heart. Rafe's father, Bill, served as a 
tactical coordinator on a P-3 naval aircraft in Vietnam. In short, Mr. 
Speaker, the Wysham family is not unfamiliar with the sacrifices that 
attend service in the United States Armed Forces.
  After his graduation from Madras High School in 1994, Rafe entered 
the United States Naval Academy, where he graduated in 1998 in the top 
10 percent of his class. Following his graduation from the academy, 
Rafe was sent to flight school in Pensacola, Florida, followed by 
advanced training in Norfolk, Virginia. His assignment to the U.S.S. 
Kennedy marks his first overseas deployment.
  Mr. Speaker, on March 3 of this year, Lieutenant Wysham was 
confronted with a sobering reminder of the danger he faces every time 
he straps himself into his Tomcat and is catapulted into the sky.
  That day during takeoff on a routine training mission in the 
Mediterranean Sea, Rafe's aircraft developed a problem that prevented 
it from gaining enough airspeed to take flight. Nevertheless, the 
carrier's catapult system launched the plane forward too fast to abort 
the takeoff, but too slow to make it into the air. The aircraft's 
pilot, Lieutenant Commander Christopher M. Blaschum of Virginia Beach, 
immediately called for both to eject.
  Rafe complied, but blacked out from the force of that ejection. 
Tragically, while Rafe's parachute opened and delivered him safely to 
the water below, Commander Blaschum's chute failed and his life was 
lost.
  Lieutenant Wysham woke to find himself floating in the water in full 
gear, directly in the path of one of the world's most lethal warships. 
Cutting away his seat pan, he swam desperately to escape the oncoming 
carrier, which passed within 20 feet of him. Fortunately, Rafe 
survived.
  Mr. Speaker, the loss of his pilot was a devastating blow to 
Lieutenant Wysham, his shipmates aboard the U.S.S. Kennedy, and the 
entire naval family. Commander Blaschum leaves behind a wife and two 
sons, Jack and Max, who will carry the memory of their father's service 
and his ultimate sacrifice as long as they live.
  Mr. Speaker, Lieutenant Wysham would probably be mortified to know 
that he is being honored on the floor of the United States House of 
Representatives today. He is not the sort who seeks public recognition 
for his service to our country. Neither is he the sort to dwell on his 
own mortality, or let the fear of the unexpected keep him from 
completing his vital mission.
  Indeed, Rafe was back up in the air less than a week after the 
accident, and in an e-mail to his mother shortly after the incident, 
Rafe wrote, ``I entered this business knowing something like this could 
happen.'' Like the thousands of men and women in uniform fighting the 
war on terrorism, Lieutenant Wysham simply accepts his reality, and he 
marches on.
  Mr. Speaker, the author, James Michener, wrote a famous story of 
another group of naval aviators whose service in the Korean War bears 
close resemblance to that of the men and women serving in harm's way 
today. In his novel, the Bridges at Toko-Ri, Michener tells of an 
officer named Harry Brubaker, a lawyer who had fought as a carrier 
pilot in World War II, and then was recalled to fight again in the 
skies over Korea. Brubaker is not at all pleased with the turn of 
events, but tucks in his chin and accepts his duty, nonetheless.
  Brubaker's task force commander is a salty old admiral named Tarrant, 
who develops a deep but well-concealed affection for the young pilot. 
Tarrant describes him as one of the men who ``hammer on in, even though 
the weight of the war has fallen unfairly on them. I always think of 
them as the voluntary men. The world is always dependent on the 
voluntary men.
  In the end, Brubaker is lost pressing the attack on the bridges, 
leaving the old admiral reeling in the loss of one of his boys. On the 
final page of the book, he asks himself the question that haunts us all 
when we learn of the heroism of our men and women in uniform: ``Why is 
America lucky enough to have such men,'' he asks. ``Where did we get 
such men?''
  Mr. Speaker, in this case, we got them from the small town of Madras, 
Oregon, and the bigger city of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Thank God we 
have them, voluntary men, like Rafe Wysham and Chris Blaschum. We 
should be forever grateful on that account.

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