[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 51 (Monday, March 31, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4541-S4542]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    101ST AIRBORNE, CLARKSVILLE, TN

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, a little later today or tomorrow, I want to 
share with my colleagues at the appropriate time a visit I had with the 
101st Airborne families in Clarksville, TN, yesterday. I had the 
opportunity to go by and visit with those families, attend church, and 
to spend the early afternoon with them and have lunch with them. It was 
a remarkable experience for me, Karen my wife, and our son Jonathan.
  Over 17,000 women and men have been deployed from that particular 
post over the last several weeks. Those 17,000 are now in Iraq and 
Kuwait as part of the 101st Airborne air assault team. The

[[Page S4542]]

pride we as a family felt in them, the stories that they told us, I 
will be sharing with my colleagues over the next several days. But just 
the lasting impression I had was this juxtaposition of feeling, as we 
talked to the moms and dads and children, of concern for their husband 
or their spouse and, yes, an insecurity about their safety, which is 
natural, as we would all feel, but at the same time an optimism, a 
feeling of being able to contribute to the United States of America and 
our great democracy.
  They were upbeat. They were optimistic. They were patriotic. And that 
sort of juxtaposition of feeling was something that was a real 
privilege for me and my family to experience. The one thing they did 
all say, as we finished church and went to lunch, was: Make sure, when 
you go back to Washington, that you let your colleagues know and let 
the President of the United States know how much we appreciate their 
leadership, their support for our troops abroad. Let the President know 
that we are keeping him and his family in our prayers.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________