[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 61 (Wednesday, May 17, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E854]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E854]]
              TRIBUTE TO ANNE BREHM OF KANSAS CITY, KANSAS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DENNIS MOORE

                               of kansas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 17, 2006

  Mr. MOORE of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, as Memorial Day approaches, I want 
to take a moment to bring to the attention of the House of 
Representatives the noteworthy contribution of Anne Brehm of Kansas 
City, Kansas, to the Women in Military Service for America Memorial in 
Washington, D.C.
  Originally attributed to an ``unknown Army nurse,'' a quotation 
inscribed on the memorial site recently was attributed to World War II 
Air Force nurse Anne Sosh Brehm, who wrote it in a 1990 letter to 
retired Brig. Gen. Wilma Vaught, USAF, the foundation president for the 
memorial. The circumstances of her correspondence, and the recent 
attribution of the quote to Anne Brehm are recounted in a recent 
article from The Leaven, which I am including with this statement. Mrs. 
Brehm's quote, which will be properly attributed to her at a Memorial 
Day ceremony at the memorial later this month, is as follows:

       ``Let the generations know that the women in uniform also 
     guaranteed their freedom; that our resolve was as great as 
     the brave men who stood among us; and with victory our hearts 
     were just as full and beat just as fast as theirs, that the 
     tears fell just as hard for those we left behind us.''

                    [From The Leaven, Nov. 11, 2005]

  Let the Generations Know--Sacred Heart Parishioner Earned Place in 
                          World War II History

                             (By Bob Hart)

       Kansas City, KS--For years it was an anonymous quote, 
     attributed to an ``unknown Army nurse'' at the Women in 
     Military Service for America Memorial in Washington, D.C.:
       ``Let the generations know that the women in uniform also 
     guaranteed their Freedom; that our resolve was as great as 
     the brave men who stood among us; and with victory our hearts 
     were just as full and beat as fast as theirs, that tears fell 
     just as hard for those we left behind us.''
       Every so often, Anne Brehm, a parishioner of Sacred Heart 
     Church in Kansas City, Kan., would hear of the quote, and 
     think to herself, ``I said that.'' Typically modest the 
     former World War II Army nurse did nothing about it.
       ``For 15 years, I just let it go,'' Brehm said.
       Things changed this past August when Brehm received a phone 
     call from retired Brig. Gen. Wilma L. Vaught, USAF, 
     foundation president for the memorial. Years earlier, Brehm 
     had written the brigadier general to register for the 
     memorial and had included the quote in the comments.
       Vaught had been using it in speeches for years and had 
     passed it on for inscription in a panel at the memorial 
     itself, overlooking the pool. Unfortunately, she had long 
     since misplaced Brehm's letter and could not remember whose 
     words she was quoting.
       As fate would have it, Vaught found Brehm's letter shortly 
     before she was scheduled to speak at an American veterans of 
     World War II convention in Kansas City. Mo., late this past 
     summer. The rest, as they say, is history.


                          Where the action was

       Gary, Ind., native Anne Sosh was just 22 and fresh out of 
     nursing school in 1943 when she enlisted in the Second Air 
     Force--incurring the playful wrath of her four brothers, who 
     were all in the Navy.
       ``I betrayed my family,'' Brehm said, laughing in the 
     kitchen of the Kansas City home in which she's lived for 50 
     years. ``But the Navy didn't send their nurses overseas, and 
     I wanted to be where the action was.''
       She got her wish.
       She spent time in Bombay, India, where she was ``in awe'' 
     at seeing Mahatma Gandhi; in Burma, where she saw Gen. Joseph 
     Stillwell on the Ledo Road; and finally in China, where she 
     got to know Gen. Claire Chennault and members of his famed 
     Flying Tigers--many of whom were patients in the 172nd 
     General Hospital where Brehm served.
       She was still in China when the A-bomb was dropped. Chinese 
     nationalists and Communists took up their fight, and the 
     nurses were told to quickly leave the country.
       They grabbed what pictures and other belongings they could, 
     leaving behind 20 of their own--nurses and good friends who 
     had been killed in a plane crash in Burma.
       Brehm was first sent back to India. With the promise of her 
     choice of hospitals, she reenlisted and requested Topeka 
     General, stateside, with a secret ulterior motive: She was 
     dating a young man she'd met overseas, Dick Brehm from 
     Mission.
       She would marry Dick Brehm and raise two children--son Alan 
     and daughter Susie. She would also continue her nursing 
     career until 1990, right about the time she heard about the 
     memorial being built in Washington, D.C., to honor female 
     veterans.
       Ann Brehm picked up her pen and wrote, in her letter to 
     Vaught, what would become a very famous quote.


                           ``For all of us''

       ``I was very moved by your words,'' Vaught told Brehm on 
     the phone last August. ``I've used them in hundreds and 
     hundreds of speeches over the years.''
       The general invited Brehm to join her at the American 
     veterans of World War II convention at Crown Center, where 
     she would finally be identified as the writer of the quote 
     that had been on display in the nation's capital for 15 
     years.
       ``I was introduced and spoke,'' Brehm said. ``I have no 
     idea what I said.''
       Brehm was greeted warmly by her fellow veterans, many of 
     whom thanked her for the words that had moved them when they 
     visited the memorial. Although the revelation that she is the 
     woman who wrote ``let the generations know'' has brought her 
     a certain level of celebrity, she treasures one clipping 
     above all: a short article in her church bulletin written by 
     her pastor, Father Michael Hermes, whom she calls ``my 
     archangel.''
       The memorial will soon change the inscription from 
     ``Author, unknown Army nurse'' to properly credit 1st Lt. Ann 
     Sosh Brehm. She thinks that's nice, but not such a big deal.
       ``We had a camaraderie you just don't find in civilian 
     life,'' she said, recalling her fellow nurses, many long 
     since gone. ``What I said was for all of us, I don't need any 
     credit.''

                          ____________________