[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 50 (Tuesday, March 24, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H3784-H3785]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       AMERICAN SCHOOL KIDS AND THE LONE SURVIVOR OF WORLD WAR I

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, in 1918, the war to end all wars was 
over. It was called World War I. It started in 1914, ended in 1918. And 
during that time, it was a stalemate until 1917 when the United States 
entered the war. The United States went overseas to Europe. Those 
doughboys fought in a land they did not know and for a people they did 
not know. They broke the trench warfare stalemate, and on the 11th day 
of the 11th month at the 11th hour of 1918, that Great War was over.
  Fifteen million people in the world died because of World War I. And 
the casualties for the United States? Well, 4,734,991 Doughboys and 
Marines went over there to fight in that Great War; 116,561 were killed 
representing and defending our country. They fought in the woods, in 
the forests of Belleau Wood, the Argonne, and the fields of Flanders. 
Many of them are still buried in those forests in graves known only to 
God. When they came home, thousands more had contracted the Spanish 
flu, and they died here in the United States.
  When the war was over, America moved on, and now 101 years later, we 
honor troops from that last century. We have on the Mall here not far 
from this Capitol the Vietnam Memorial where we honor the 55,000-plus 
that were killed; we honor the Korean veterans with the Korean Memorial 
that has those American soldiers going through a minefield in the snow; 
and we honor the Greatest Generation with the World War II Memorial.
  But in the tall weeds of the Mall, there's a little-known memorial 
for the D.C. veterans that fought in World War I. It is decrepit, it is 
falling apart, and like I said, it is in the high weeds. It was built 
largely because the kids here in Washington, D.C., saved their nickels 
so that memorial could be built.
  But Mr. Speaker, we do not have a memorial on the Mall for all of the 
Americans who fought in the great World War I. America just never got 
around to it. So I have introduced the Frank Buckles Lone Survivor Act 
to expand the D.C. memorial so that it honors all that fought in World 
War I.
  Why Frank Buckles? Because you see, Mr. Speaker, Frank Buckles is the 
lone American survivor from World War I. He's 108 years old. In World 
War I, he lied to get into the Army: he was probably 16; he should have 
been 18. But he went off to war in Europe and drove an ambulance and 
rescued other doughboys that had been wounded in France. After the war 
was over, he came back to America. And during World War II, he was 
captured in the Philippines by the Japanese and held as a prisoner of 
war for 3 years. And now he lives in West Virginia.
  Mr. Speaker, here is a photograph of Frank Buckles, 108 years old. It 
is taken in front of what is left of the D.C. memorial. And what I am 
asking Congress to do is authorize the expansion of the D.C. memorial 
to include all who fought in World War I.
  You know, the men that fought there should be honored by America. 
Even though I have offered this bill into legislation, government 
bureaucrats are opposed to this memorial, saying we don't need any more 
memorials on the Mall. That dishonors America's war dead, Americans the 
bureaucrats never even knew.
  But kids across the Nation are answering the call of Frank Buckles. 
And let me explain. What is occurring is, service-learning projects in 
schools throughout the country are teaching their kids hands-on about 
World War I and those that lived and fought and died in World War I. It 
started in Creekwood Middle School in my home district, and now it has 
spread to

[[Page H3785]]

schools in Kentucky, Connecticut, Michigan and Ohio. And because of 
that, these kids are raising funds to build this World War I memorial 
for all that lived and died in this war.
  Mr. Speaker, it is imperative that we as a Nation honor all that 
fought in the four great wars in the last century. And it is a shame we 
haven't built a memorial to them. But I can tell you something, Mr. 
Speaker. America's school kids will not be denied because they are the 
grassroots campaign to build that memorial, and they are raising funds 
to do it.
  Mr. Speaker, there is nothing more powerful than American school kids 
that have made up their minds, and they have made up their minds that 
America shall honor the war dead of World War I, the Frank Buckles and 
all of those four million-plus that served with him. And we're going to 
build this memorial whether the Federal bureaucrats like it or not.
  And that's just the way it is.

                     Schools Involved in the Effort

       Terryville High School, Terryville, CT
       Bristol Eastern High School, CT
       Kingwood High School, Humble, TX
       Creekwood Middle School, Humble, TX
       Riverwood Middle School, Humble, TX
       Zeeland public schools, Michigan
       Buckeye public schools, Ohio
       University of Arkansas at Montecello
       Michigan State University ROTC Program
       Hudsonville Public Schools, Michigan

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