[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 84 (Friday, June 21, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1134]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         TRIBUTE TO CAPTAIN FRED ``POT LICK'' CLAY CUTRER, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN B. LARSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 21, 2002

  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and pay 
tribute to Captain Fred ``Pot Lick'' Clay Cutrer, Jr., United States 
Air Force, of Mississippi, who was laid to rest on Thursday, June 6, 
2002. Captain Cutrer had been missing in action in South Vietnam since 
August 5, 1964. Captain Cutrer was the first pilot to be killed after 
President Johnson's escalation of American involvement in Vietnam due 
to the Gulf of Tonkin. At the time Captain Cutrer's plane went down he 
was only 29 years old.
  Captain Cutrer and his navigator, Lieutenant Leonard Lee Kaster of 
Massachusetts, were flying a B-57B Canberra on August 5, attempting to 
land at a nearby base, when they were shot down by Viet Cong soldiers. 
Unfortunately, a rescue or recovery mission could not be attempted, as 
the area where the plane went down was deemed too dangerous. Both men 
were listed as Missing in Action and their names were on the Vietnam 
Wall when it was dedicated in Washington, D.C., in 1982. Captain 
Cutrer's name can be found on Panel 1E, Line 60.
  In August 1992, the Defense Department's POW/Missing Personnel Office 
found the crash site with the help of a Vietnamese native who saw the 
plane as it crashed in Long Khan Province. Follow-up visits led to an 
excavation in March and April 1997 and recovery of Captain Cutrer's 
remains. In January 1998, Captain Cutrer's family was notified that his 
dog tags and remains had been found. He was given a full military 
burial at Arlington Cemetery on Thursday, June 6, 2002. Since 
Lieutenant Kaster's remains were never found, he was buried with 
Captain Cutrer. He and Lieutenant Kaster were posthumously awarded the 
Purple Heart.
  Captain Cutrer grew up in Mississippi in a loving family and 
alongside great friends. He was married to Shirley Cutrer, who was a 
First Lieutenant who was honorably discharged as an Air Force nurse in 
1962 after becoming pregnant with the couple's first of two sons, Fred 
III. She died September 10, 1998, when her car collided with an 18-
wheeler in Pennsylvania. Later this summer, she will be exhumed and 
buried beside her husband's plot.
  On Thursday, June 6, many of Captain Cutrer's friends and family met 
at Arlington to finally lay to rest their beloved friend and family 
member. Among those attending the funeral were Captain Cutrer's two 
sons, Fred III and Dan, his brother Hugh Molse Cutrer and his two 
sisters, Lillie Cutrer Gould and Connie Cutrer Blair of Simsbury, CT.
  Captain Fred ``Pot Lick'' Clay Cutrer, Jr. is a true American hero 
and I urge my colleagues to stand today to honor his memory.