[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 73 (Thursday, June 6, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H3278]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FIFTY-EIGHTH ANNIVERSARY OF D-DAY
(Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, it is June 6, 2002, and 58 years ago on this
day, as President Reagan said nearly 20 years ago, we mark a day in
history when allied peoples joined in battle to reclaim a continent to
liberty.
As President Reagan said, for 4 long years much of Europe had been
caught up under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried
out in the camps, millions cried for liberation, and America and her
allies responded.
225 Rangers came ashore at Pointe de Hoc, Normandy, along with
thousands of others. As President Reagan would say, that day in 1984,
the men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right,
faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would
grant them mercy on this beachhead or the next. It was the deep
knowledge, and I pray God we have not lost it, of the profound moral
difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force
for conquest.
Let us, on this 58th anniversary, never forget the courage, the
inspiration, and the faith of the boys and the men of Pointe du Hoc,
Normandy.
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