[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 11 (Monday, February 7, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S1048]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                           WARREN V. HILEMAN

 Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, I rise to recognize the life and 
service of Mr. Warren V. Hileman, who passed away recently at the 
Illinois Veterans Home in Anna.
  Last week, the Southern Illinoisan reported that the State believes 
Mr. Hileman was the last World War I veteran to have lived in Illinois.
  He joined the U.S. Army in 1919, and served with the American 
Expeditionary Force in Siberia from September of 1919 to March 1920. 
Traveling thousands of miles across Siberia in temperatures that often 
reached 30 below, Mr. Hileman and the 27th infantry served long after 
the Armistice was signed in Europe.
  In Posolskaya, their unit was involved in a hostile encounter that 
later won Mr. Hileman the World War I Victory Medal, which he was 
awarded in January of 2004.
  After the war, he came home to Illinois where he worked in a North 
Chicago veterans hospital. Later, he and his wife moved back down south 
to Union County, where they spent the rest of their lives.
  Warren was only 17 years old when he first landed in Vladivostok, 
Russia. Perhaps he was anxious about the war ahead of him; perhaps he 
already missed the home that lay behind. But above all, he was ready 
and eager to serve this country. At just 17, he was ready to make the 
ultimate sacrifice in the defense of freedom.
  Today, we honor his service and remember a man who returned from war 
to live over a century on this Earth. Through more wars and depression, 
through great advances for civil rights and great struggles for 
freedom, Mr. Hileman was there--a patriot who had proudly written his 
own page in the story of 20th century America.
  It is said that whether a life is long or short, its completeness 
depends on what it was lived for. And so, while Warren Hileman left us 
at the age of 103, the true completeness of his life comes from what he 
lived it for--for his friends, for his family, and for the defense of 
the country he loved. May his memory serve as a reminder for all of us 
to keep faith with our Nation's veterans, and may Warren Hileman rest 
in eternal peace.

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