[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 24, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H813]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      IN TRIBUTE TO REPRESENTATIVE JOHN P. MURTHA OF PENNSYLVANIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Braley) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. Madam Speaker, some people may wonder why I am 
standing here tonight, because almost everyone who's spoken before me 
knew Jack Murtha longer and better than I did.
  But one of the things that I want to share with everyone who cares 
about Jack is my first meeting in his office, because Jack came to the 
door and greeted me, and as we were walking in, I looked up on the wall 
of his office and I saw that famous photograph that Joe Rosenthal took 
of the flag-raising on Iwo Jima, and it was signed by Joe Rosenthal. 
And I stopped the chairman, and I pointed it out to him, and I told him 
that my father landed at Iwo Jima the same days that those flags were 
raised. And in that instant, Jack Murtha became my friend for life.
  And we talked about the photograph, and I showed him that over the 
shoulder of those Marines on Mount Suribachi, you could see down on the 
shoreline on Green Beach LST-808, which was the landing ship tank that 
dropped my dad off on Iwo Jima 65 years ago yesterday.
  And after that moment, any time I had a question or a concern or a 
problem that affected the men and women in my district or my State that 
served this country in uniform, I knew where to go, and I went to Jack 
Murtha.
  And one of the amazing things about how all of this unfolded is Jack 
and I had talked about this year being the 65th anniversary of the 
invasion of Iwo Jima, and we talked about going there together. And 
unfortunately, because of his tragic loss of life, we never had that 
opportunity.
  And I think about that because my dad died 29 years ago, and so many 
things about him were like Jack. He landed as an 18-year-old farm boy 
from Iowa, and he saw horrible things in war. Like Jack, he saw one of 
his good friends vaporized by a shell burst, and I have read the story 
of that account by the commanding officer of the core artillery that my 
dad served under, Colonel John Letcher.
  One of the things that I did recently was I got a chance to tape the 
veteran's history interview of my cousin, Richard Braley, who, like my 
dad, was a Marine and served in Vietnam as an officer, just like Jack 
Murtha. And one of the things that is so special about people like my 
dad and my cousin and Jack Murtha is you never forget and you're always 
faithful.
  So when my dad died 29 years ago, one of the most emotional things 
that happened was when my cousin flew all the way back from Hawaii so 
that someone would be at that small rural cemetery where he was buried 
to play taps, and he played it on his trumpet. And then he came up to 
me at the very end with tears in his eyes, and he said, I wonder if you 
could help. I brought this with me and I would like to put it in the 
casket. And I looked down and in his hand he had a small silver 
medallion with the words ``Semper Fidelis'' on it.
  And when I heard these stories about Jack Murtha all afternoon long, 
one of the other things it reminded me of was how mad my mother used to 
get when my dad would stop and pick up hitchhikers, because she didn't 
think it was safe for him to be doing that. And I think my dad and Jack 
Murtha realized after the hell that they had lived through on the 
battlefield, that the rest of their lives was gravy.
  And as I was listening here to all of these amazing stories about 
Jack, I was thinking to myself, I wish my father had lived to meet 
Jack.
  And then it suddenly dawned on me that he probably has.

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