[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 67 (Thursday, May 19, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H3679]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               A TRIBUTE TO TSCL VICE CHAIR DOTTIE HOLMES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Marchant). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to a very, very 
special lady tonight. Dorothy ``Dottie'' Holmes served in the United 
States Air Force from 1949 to 1979. She is the first female Chief 
Master Sergeant and first woman to retire with 30 years of continuous 
service in the United States Air Force. She received 14 different 
awards and decorations during her career, the highest being the Legion 
of Merit Award.
  Dottie Holmes was recalled to active duty twice to serve on the Air 
Force Chief of Staff Advisory Council For Retiree Affairs. She 
currently serves as a trustee on the TREA Senior Citizens League Board, 
a position that she has held since 2001. She previously served as a 
trustee on TSCL from 1995 to 1996.
  Dottie Holmes is a life member of the Retired Enlisted Association. 
She served as the National President, the only woman to do so. She was 
a National first Vice President, and the National second Vice President 
of that organization as well. She actively served on the TREA 
Convention, Finance, Planning, Membership, Bylaws, and Rules Committees 
during the 1990s. She also served as president, Vice President, and 
Secretary of Chapter 1 Building Board Association.
  She has been active in community affairs. Dottie Holmes served as a 
Pikes Peak Regional USO council member. She served as a Colorado State 
Field Representative For Women in Military Service, a part of their 
Memorial Foundation. She served as a city and county election judge, a 
USAFA Special Olympics volunteer. She also served at Peterson Air Force 
Base as a staff judge advocate volunteer. She currently serves as 
President of the Women in the Air Force Association.
  She is considered an authority, and let me say a real authority, on 
the Air Force Academy. For many of the years that she served in the Air 
Force, she served as sort of the den mother to an awful lot of those 
cadets who went on to become officers in the United States Air Force.
  The management skills of Dottie that she acquired from service in the 
Air Force and in her community service were enhanced by her college 
studies and management. At TREA Senior Citizens League, she has served 
as Vice President of the Board of Trustees for the past several years. 
She has demonstrated outstanding leadership in helping to oversee the 
Board's rise to prominence as a really accredited and acclaimed 
seniors' group.
  In numerous meetings with Members of Congress, vice-chair Dottie 
Holmes demonstrated strength and determination in representing their 
position on important issues affecting seniors around the United 
States. She persuaded many legislators to send articles to her to 
appear in their newsletter, and she has just been an amazing and 
powerful force for issues that seniors care about. Dottie Holmes 
contributed greatly to the seniors of America with her work on that 
board. She has done the country and her Air Force service proud.
  From the very first day that I met Dottie Holmes, it was apparent 
that she was an exceptional lady. It has been a personal pleasure of 
mine to work with her during the past several years on behalf of 
seniors' issues, especially on behalf of her interest in making 
affordable drugs more available to seniors here in the United States. 
She championed the cause of safer and less expensive drugs when she 
spoke on a panel at a town hall meeting we held last year in Denver. 
Her convincing voice for seniors will be sorely missed here in 
Washington when she retires from the Board of Trustees.
  I want to say a very special and personal thank you to Dottie Holmes 
for the example that she has set and for her lifetime of service.

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