[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 59 (Monday, May 15, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S4555]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. INHOFE (for himself and Mr. Coburn):
  S. 2800. A bill to designate the Department of Veterans Affairs 
Outpatient Clinic in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as the ``Ernest Childers 
Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic''; to the Committee on 
Veterans' Affairs.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I rise today for myself and on the behalf 
of my colleague, Dr. Coburn, to introduce a bill to honor the memory an 
American hero and proud son from our great state of Oklahoma. Ernest 
Childers was the first Native American to receive the Congressional 
Medal of Honor. This is our Nation's highest military award and it was 
awarded to him by Congress ``for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity 
at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty in action.''
  Ernest Childers was born in Broken Arrow, OK, on February 1, 1918, as 
the third of five children. His father died when he was young and he 
grew up mostly on a farm. His hunting skills in his youth provided much 
of the food for his family and formed the basis of a great military 
career.
  Ernest Childers enlisted in the Oklahoma National Guard in 1937 while 
attending the Chilocco Indian School in north-central Oklahoma. He then 
went to Fort Sill in Lawton, OK, for basic training before being 
deployed to Africa in World War II. On September 22, 1943, despite a 
broken instep that forced him to crawl, 2nd Lieutenant Childers 
advanced against enemy machine gun nests in Oliveto, Italy, killing two 
snipers and capturing an enemy mortar observer in the process. His 
actions were instrumental in helping the Americans win the Battle of 
Oliveto and won him the Congressional Medal of Honor. He continued his 
career in the Army earning several other military awards including the 
Combat Infantry Badge, Europe and Africa Campaign Medals, The Purple 
Heart, The Bronze Star, and the Oklahoma Distinguished Service Cross. 
He retired from the Army in August of 1965 as a Lieutenant Colonel in 
Oklahoma's 45th Infantry Division.
  Ernest Childers passed away on March 17, 2005 and was Oklahoma's last 
Congressional Medal of Honor winner still living in the state. He was 
an honored guest of many Presidential Inaugurations and as a Creek 
Indian, was named Oklahoma's Most Outstanding Indian by the Tulsa 
Chapter of the Council of American Indians in 1966. He once said ``The 
American Indian has only one country to defend, and when you're picked 
on, the American Indian never turns his back.'' Mr. President, I am 
proud and believe it is only appropriate to introduce a bill to rename 
the Department of Veterans Affairs' Outpatient Clinic in Tulsa, 
Oklahoma, the Ernest Childers Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient 
Clinic to honor the enduring legacy of a true hero and fine soldier.

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