[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 125 (Monday, September 30, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1691]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         IN RECOGNITION OF FORMER CONGRESSMAN ROMAN C. PUCINSKI

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. WILLIAM O. LIPINSKI

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 26, 2002

  Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay my respects to a 
former colleague and dear friend, Mr. Roman Pucinski. Mr. Pucinski, who 
passed away in Park Ridge, Illinois, on September 25, 2002, represented 
the northwest side of the City of Chicago in the U.S. House of 
Representatives from 1959 to 1973.
  Pucinski grew up in a heavily Polish neighborhood now called Wicker 
Park. His youth was shaped by his father's abandonment of his mother 
and siblings when he was a child and by the Depression in his pre-teen 
years when he wore govemment-issued shoes, said his daughter Aurelia, 
who followed her father into politics and served as Cook County Circuit 
Court clerk from 1988 to 2000.
  Pucinski, articulate and never at a loss for words, had an early 
interest in public affairs. After graduating from Northwestern 
University, he worked as a reporter, as a bombardier during World War 
II and as a bilingual chief investigator for a special House 
subcommittee investigating the Katyn Forest massacre of thousands of 
Polish military officers by the Soviets during the war. Urged by Mayor 
Richard J. Daley to run for Congress, Pucinski entered the 11th 
District race on the Northwest Side in 1958 and won.
  From the start of his tenure in Congress, Representative Pucinski 
(``Pooch'' to colleagues and friends) mounted a one-man effort to 
require airlines to install crash-proof cockpit voice recorders in 
airplanes. Despite organized opposition from the major airlines, 
Pucinski kept the pressure on and in 1964 the Federal Aviation 
Administration issued an order requiring air carriers to install crash-
proof cockpit voice recorders in their aircraft. Commonly referred to 
as the ``black box'', cockpit voice recorders are now a critical 
component of aviation safety. Black boxes provide vital information 
about the final minutes of airline disasters to accident investigators 
and have helped determine the cause of several plane crashes.
  As a decorated Air Force pilot, Pucinski knew that a recording of 
last minute cockpit conversations would provide vital clues to the 
cause of airline tragedies. During World War II, Pucinski led his 
bomber group in the first B-29 bombing raid over Tokyo. He flew 48 
other combat missions over Japan and was awarded the Distinguished 
Flying Cross and Air Medal with Clusters. From his own personal 
experience as a pilot, Pucinski understood that, in the last few 
minutes preceding an air tragedy, the cockpit crew is far too busy 
trying to save their passengers and aircraft to radio formal reports to 
a ground station. However, a crash-proof tape recorder operating 
automatically during flight preserves a record of everything said in 
the cockpit for accident investigators.
  As a result of Roman Pucinski's dedicated and courageous leadership 
in the establishment of crash-proof tape recorders in commercial 
airliners, accident investigation and aviation safety have been 
significantly advanced in the public interest, and outstanding results 
for the national aviation system have been achieved.
  In addition, Pucinski spent much of his career serving Chicago's 
Polish community. After serving in Congress, Pucinski became the 
longtime president of the Illinois Division of the Polish American 
Congress, and he led a number of rallies in Chicago protesting 
communism in Poland. He supported Poland's Solidarity labor movement, 
and over the years he helped to raise $1.5 million as the movement 
gained international prominence.
  Roman Pucinski's legacy will surely include his lasting contribution 
to aviation safety and involvement with the Polish American community, 
but it will also show him as a caring and dedicated leader. His 
daughter, Aurelia, has said of him ``He understood that in order to get 
things done for ordinary people, you had to be in the position where 
people would listen to you. He loved the problem solving part of it. 
That energized him. He loved meeting people, loved wading into a room 
of strangers to find out what they were thinking, identify with them, 
and have the chance to represent them.''
  Mr. Speaker, Roman Pucinski was a committed public servant and was 
revered and respected by nearly all who knew him. I ask our colleagues 
to join me in honoring the memory of such a dedicated and courageous 
man. He will be greatly missed.

                          ____________________