[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 85 (Thursday, May 22, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H4824-H4825]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         FAREWELL TO COLLEAGUES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter) is recognized for 5 minutes.

[[Page H4825]]

  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, we finished this defense bill today and we 
have got a couple of gentlemen who are retiring from public office. We 
have two gentlemen from the Armed Services Committee, Mr. Andrews and 
Mr. Udall, who are leaving the committee to run for the U.S. Senate, 
and I want to commend them and wish them the best. But we also have two 
gentlemen who are retiring from public office, and that is Mr. Jim 
Saxton and Mr. Terry Everett. I thought it would be proper at the end 
of this bill to talk about them because they are remarkable people.
  Jimmy Saxton is a guy who probably has learned more about our Special 
Operations Forces and their needs than probably anybody else in 
Washington, D.C. He is the guy who is the chairman of the first 
Terrorism Subcommittee, which oversees Special Operations, whether it's 
our SEALs, our Rangers, our Special Forces, or others. He took it upon 
himself to learn everything that he possibly could so that he could go 
back to the committee and put together a defense bill that gave them 
what they needed.
  Jimmy Saxton is a guy with a great heart. He is a lifelong friend of 
mine. We have been political allies and personal friends for many, many 
years. If you ask Jimmy Saxton for a favor, he just does it. He doesn't 
ponder it, he doesn't have to analyze it or calculate, he just does it. 
That is a wonderful quality to have in a good friend because you can 
get lots of them from them.
  I have always made it a habit to exploit Jimmy Saxton for political 
favors because he is always there, ready to help. What a dear, 
wonderful friend Jimmy Saxton is.
  Terry Everett, I have said this on several occasions, but this is a 
guy who is so critical to this country because he is a guy who shuns 
the limelight, shuns cameras, but works in closed rooms in classified 
session is in both the Intelligence Committee and the Armed Services 
Committee with that cross-pollenization of information and the right 
classifications and can see the right documents and the right 
information, that he is able to put together a coherent policy that 
will allow us to protect American interests in space, and by doing 
that, make sure we protect Americans who depend on space for our 
military eyes and our economic eyes.
  Terry Everett is going to be hard to replace. In fact, I don't think 
you can replace him. He is also like Jim Saxton, a dear friend of mine. 
We have been political allies and personal friends, it seems forever, 
that great guy from Alabama. I went back to see his house one time that 
he built by himself, and when I walked into his woodworking shop, which 
is massive, and he has got more machinery than the average saw mill, I 
noticed there was some blood on the floor. It was dried blood. I said 
Terry, What is that? He said, Well, I almost cut my thumb off one time 
and I just left that blood there to remind myself to be safe.
  Well, Terry Everett is one of those guys who's able to do all this 
great work for our country, working on space, working on missiles, 
working on missile defense, and also knowing the personalities, the 
people that populate the Pentagon and our intelligence agencies and 
Capitol Hill, and being able to weave all those people and all that 
technology together in a way that he has had such an impact on our 
national security.
  So, like Jim Saxton, Terry Everett is going to be a man who is 
irreplaceable. Let me tell you, in my memory, both of these great 
Americans are irreplaceable for what they have done for their country 
and what their personal friendship has meant to me.

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