[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 184 (Tuesday, December 4, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2465-E2466]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO GLENN ``TEX'' BREWER

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. LYNN A. WESTMORELAND

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 4, 2007

  Mr. WESTMORELAND. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor one of my 
personal heroes: a constituent in Fayetteville, GA, who has lived a 
life of exciting adventures, public service and family values.
  Glenn ``Tex'' Brewer will retire from the Fayetteville City Council 
at the end of this year after serving for 16 years, many of those years 
as mayor pro tem.
  But Brewer's civic duty in his hometown ranks as merely one of a long 
list of public services and great deeds. He spent most of his life 
serving our Nation as a career officer in the U.S. Navy, retiring as a 
captain.
  The man's career reflected the boy's dream. A 10-year-old Brewer saw 
a news reel about Navy deep sea divers while he was at the local 
theater to see ``Flash Gordon'' in 1938.
  When Brewer joined the Navy, however, he already had a pilot's 
license, so he was placed on the aviation track, where he received 
training in aerial and ground photography. This skill would come in 
handy after he graduated from the Naval Academy and switched from 
flight training to submarines. He soon became a highly skilled deep sea 
diver and an innovator in underwater photography.
  In fact, Brewer was the first man to dive beneath the North Pole and 
to take pictures of the underside of the ice block. This was part of 
the USS Seadragon's historic trip, the first to traverse the Arctic 
Ocean from Atlantic to the Pacific. The submarine traveled the 
Northwest Passage beneath the ice of the North Pole. The largest 
iceberg the crew encountered measured 1,500 feet long, 100 feet wide 
and 300 feet deep. Brewer's photos of the iceberg ran in Life Magazine, 
the New York Times and the Washington Post. The crew surfaced on the 
geographic North Pole and played a game of softball. A hit ball would 
travel through today, yesterday, and tomorrow in one play, Brewer said, 
adding that every view from home plate pointed south.
  It wasn't all good times on the North Pole, however. On another 
occasion, Brewer and two crew mates were accidentally stranded for

[[Page E2466]]

6 hours on the ice without tools, communications equipment, or 
sufficiently warm clothing. It was, Brewer said, a ``moment of truth'' 
in a potentially fatal scenario.
  For his work at the North Pole, Brewer received the Navy Commendation 
Medal; for being the first to dive at the North Pole, he was elected a 
member of the National Explorers Club, a distinction he called ``one of 
the finest awards'' he had ever won.
  After many distinguished years in the Navy, Brewer capped off his 
career with a stint in the offices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where 
he worked as chief of one of the National Military Command and Control 
Centers. He called the job the most rewarding of his life. For his 
service there, he won the Legion of Merit and then retired from the 
Navy in 1976.
  Inside the Navy and out, Brewer has always competed.
  During one tour of duty, Brewer raced hydro planes in the Southern 
California Speedboat Club in the American Power Boat Association, where 
he won two national championship hydro plane races. He set world 
records in straight-away speed and competition speed and earned a spot 
in the Gulf Oil Marine Racing Hall of Fame.
  In 1985, a hang-gliding accident left Brewer paralyzed from the waist 
down. The injury, however, didn't stymie his competitive spirit or work 
ethic. He returned to his ancestral home in Fayetteville, GA, and 
restored his family's antebellum farm. He also played wheelchair sports 
and won more than 60 medals, mostly in the National Paralyzed Veterans 
Wheelchair Games.
  For the past 16 years, Glenn ``Tex'' Brewer has served the people of 
his city as a member of the city council. During Brewer's tenure, he 
has strongly advocated restoration of Fayetteville's historic 
buildings, and he has championed the needs of the city's seniors and 
its youth.
  For his lifetime of service to his Nation and community, Glenn Brewer 
deserves the praise of this House. On behalf of Georgia's Third 
Congressional District, I would like to pay personal thanks to him for 
all of his good works and wish him health and happiness as he prepares 
to retire from the city council.

                          ____________________