[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 83 (Friday, May 28, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H4203-H4204]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  HONORING CORPORAL JEFFREY W. JOHNSON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. McCaul) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, as we go back home to our districts to honor 
the veterans on Memorial Day, today I rise to honor a true American 
hero, Corporal Jeffrey Johnson, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Division.
  Born January 27, 1989, in Charleston, South Carolina, Jeffrey joined 
the Marines in July of 2007. He was killed on May 11, 2010, in the 
Helmand province in Afghanistan, where we have seen some of the 
fiercest fighting in the war as the surge moves forward to victory. He 
was 3 weeks into his second deployment when he was killed by an IED 
while on patrol.

                              {time}  1645

  Corporal Johnson is a graduate of Waller High School and is now being 
touted in the media as a son of Tomball, Texas. Jeffrey loved Ford 
trucks and he loved the outdoors, especially hunting and fishing. 
Corporal Johnson joined the military to provide education and other 
options. He wanted to attend the University of Texas and become either 
a game warden or a State trooper.
  Katy Anguish, his wife, wanted people to know that Jeffrey was a 
creative person. He loved to have fun. I spoke to the family the day 
Jeffrey was brought home to his final homecoming to offer my 
condolences on behalf of a grateful Nation and to give them flags flown 
over the United States Capitol in his honor.
  To his wife, Katy Anguish; his father and stepmother, Jerry and Kelly 
Johnson; his mother, Dawn Hardwick; sisters Ashtian Bennett and Kassidy 
Johnson; his brother, Jason Martin; his grandparents, Delores Campbell, 
Glenda Schneider, John Farmer, and Jerry Tyner, it's hard to put in 
words how you must feel, but know that the United States Congress and 
the American people are so grateful for your son's service.
  Unfortunately, I have attended too many military funerals, as many 
Members of Congress have, but I have never seen such an overwhelming 
support and love in the welcoming home of this fallen hero.
  He arrived by airplane from Afghanistan in Tomball, Texas. He was 
greeted by the marines, who carried his casket to the hearse. It 
reminded me of the greatness of this country. It was so inspiring to me 
that at a time of great tragedy and sorrow that over 30,000 people in a 
small town showed up to pay their respects, to show their appreciation 
for a man who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country, to signal to 
the rest of the Nation that patriotism and love of country are still 
alive and well in America, and it restored my faith in America.
  The Tomball Fire Department hung a large U.S. flag from two extended 
ladder trucks as Corporal Johnson's body traveled by motorcade to the 
funeral home. Thousands of friends, veterans, school children, and 
ordinary citizens, showed their support and lined the streets waving 
American flags. This is what it's all about.

[[Page H4204]]

  As a Member of Congress, the hardest thing we have to do is to 
comfort families when they have lost a loved one in a time of war. My 
heart goes out to the family.
  But Jeffrey did not die in vain. He was part of something greater 
than himself. He was on a mission for freedom and liberty, on a mission 
to liberate the world from the scourge of terrorism.
  My father, a World War II veteran, was part of what we now call the 
Greatest Generation. Jeffrey is now part of a new great generation of 
heroes.
  His life embodies what we see in the Gospel of John, Chapter 15:13, 
``Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for 
his friends.''
  Jeffrey, you are home now with God. Well done, good and faithful 
servant. May God bless you and may he hold you in the palm of his hand.
  I would like to close with a quote from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg 
address, which I read to the family the day of the homecoming. His 
words are as timeless today and relevant as they were so many years 
ago, when he said, ``The world will little note, nor long remember what 
we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us 
the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which 
they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for 
us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that 
from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for 
which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly 
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this Nation, 
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of 
the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the 
Earth.''
  God bless you, Jeffrey.

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