[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 156 (Sunday, September 28, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2138]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          HONORING THE MILITARY SERVICE OF SSG WAYNE CARRINGER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. HEATH SHULER

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                      Saturday, September 27, 2008

  Mr. SHULER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and service 
of SSG Wayne Carringer of Robbinsville, North Carolina, a courageous 
and highly decorated World War II veteran who was held for almost 3\1/
2\ years as a prisoner of war.
  Staff Sergeant Carringer enlisted in the Army in September 1939. He 
survived what has become known as the Bataan Death March, the march 
from Mariveles to San Fernando where the soldiers, already malnourished 
and weak, were brutally tortured or killed by the Japanese.
  At the end of the march, the soldiers were transported to Camp 
O'Dell, which Staff Sergeant Carringer has described as a death 
factory. He was placed into the Zero Ward, the building where the 
Japanese put the soldiers that were expected to die. Eventually, he was 
moved to work in the Japanese coal mines, where he endured starvation, 
malnutrition, torture, beatings, solitary confinement, malaria, and 
slave labor. His weight plummeted to what he estimated was 80 to 85 
pounds. After living as a prisoner of war for almost 3\1/2\ years, he 
emerged from captivity after the end of the war to find that the 
government had declared him dead in 1943. Staff Sergeant Carringer 
attributes his survival of the horrendous experience to his faith in 
God, and said that the experience increased his appreciation for his 
country and in his fellow man.
  Every day we enjoy freedoms made possible by this heroic man and the 
thousands of other members of our military who have risked or given 
their lives to protect us, to ensure that the United States remains the 
land of the free and the home of the brave.
  I ask my colleagues to join me today in recognizing the bravery and 
sacrifice of SSG Wayne Carringer, and to thank him for defending and 
preserving the freedoms that each of us enjoys today.

                          ____________________