[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 51 (Monday, April 25, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4179-S4180]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO JOE BEYRLE

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, on Friday, April 22, a true American hero 
was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. Joe Beyrle of 
Muskegon, MI, was a paratrooper in the 101st Division on D-Day in World 
War II. His capture by the Germans and his heroic escape to fight with 
the Russian Army on the Eastern Front, making him the only American 
soldier to fight with both the United States and Russian armies against 
Nazi Germany, have been chronicled in a wonderful book by retired Army 
Colonel Thomas Taylor called The Simple Sounds of Freedom.
  It was my privilege to speak at the burial ceremony for Joe Beyrle. I 
ask unanimous consent that my remarks be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

[[Page S4180]]

                         Eulogy for Joe Beyrle

       Arlington National Cemetery, April 22, 2005
       We cannot be reminded often enough about the extraordinary 
     things that seemingly ordinary Americans have done to protect 
     our country and our freedoms.
       A short year after Joe Beyrle graduated from Muskegon's 
     Saint Joseph High School in June of 1942, he found himself on 
     the way to England as an elite paratrooper in the storied 
     Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division. And that is 
     when Joe Beyrle, like other members of the Greatest 
     Generation, came face to face with unimaginable challenges, 
     and went from being seemingly ordinary to extraordinary.
       I knew Joe and JoAnne, and I knew of Joe's wartime 
     exploits, long before Tom Taylor's wonderful book about Joe 
     was published. What makes that book so special for me is that 
     now everyone can be inspired by the amazing story of Joe's 
     service during World War II: the rigorous training that made 
     ``Jumpin' Joe'' such an expert paratrooper that he was 
     selected for clandestine drops in occupied France before D-
     Day to supply the French resistance with gold; his dogged 
     determination after his capture on D-Day by the Germans to 
     escape and rejoin his unit; his courageous decision to fight 
     with the Russian Army after he finally escaped the German POW 
     camp--even helping to liberate the very POW camp from which 
     he had escaped--making him the only American soldier to fight 
     for both the United States and the Russians against Nazi 
     Germany; and the remarkable story of his travel after he was 
     wounded to the American Embassy in Moscow, where American 
     officials at first thought he was a spy because his dog tags 
     had been found on a dead soldier thought to be him two years 
     earlier.
       And of course who can forget the story of Joe marrying 
     JoAnne in September, 1946--in a ceremony conducted by the 
     same priest who had conducted a funeral mass for the presumed 
     killed-in-action Joe Beyrle a few years before.
       And what a memorable moment it was in 1994 when President 
     Clinton and President Yeltsin honored Joe simultaneously in 
     the White House Rose Garden as part of the celebration of the 
     50th anniversary of D-Day.
       Joe's indomitable spirit, love of country and will to 
     survive come through every page of his remarkable story, a 
     story that reads more like fiction than history. One of my 
     favorite examples of the legendary Beyrle tenacity--Joe would 
     probably call it bull-headedness--took place at the end of 
     the story when Joe was being held in custody in Moscow until 
     the American Embassy officials could establish his true 
     identity.
       In a feverish and woozy state from his wounds, Joe decided 
     to overpower the Marine guarding his room and escape again--
     to rejoin the Russian Army and get home by way of Berlin! 
     Even Joe admitted: ``Of all my escape plans, this was the 
     wildest and dumbest of all!''
       It is said that courage isn't the absence of fear but the 
     presence of faith. Joe was a man of courage because he had 
     such a vast reservoir of faith--faith in himself; faith in 
     the cause that his country asked him to fight for; and faith 
     in his Creator.
       Shortly after Tom Taylor's book about Joe was published, I 
     hosted a reception for Joe and his family and Tom Taylor in 
     the hearing room of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The 
     Secretary of the Army, the Army Vice Chief of Staff, and the 
     Russian Ambassador attended out of respect for Joe. Joe was 
     in his element that day, passing out Screaming Eagle lapel 
     pins and replicas of the paratrooper's crickets used by the 
     Screaming Eagles on D-Day to identify one another behind 
     enemy lines. I still have the one he gave me. Listen.
       When I referred to Joe Beyrle at the reception as a hero, 
     Joe said that ``the real heroes are buried in Europe.'' There 
     are indeed a lot of American heroes buried in Europe. But 
     surely some of America's greatest heroes are here at 
     Arlington, visited each day by a hushed and awestruck 
     multitude of their grateful fellow citizens whose freedom was 
     defended by their sacrifices.
       There is no more hallowed ground than where we stand today. 
     And there is no hero more deserving of resting here than Joe 
     Beyrle. Let us all honor Joe by resolving in this sacred 
     place to live by his example of selfless service. The highest 
     tribute we can pay to this extraordinary American is to make 
     sure that the Simple Sounds of Freedom always resonate in 
     this great country that he loved so much.

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