[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 124 (Wednesday, September 15, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1620-E1621]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO DAVID MONDT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LATHAM

                                of iowa

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 15, 2010

  Mr. LATHAM. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize David Mondt, a World 
War II Army Air Corps and National Guard veteran from Boone County, 
Iowa, and to express my appreciation for his dedication and commitment 
to his country.
  The Boone News Republican is currently running a series of articles 
that honors one Boone County veteran every Tuesday from Memorial Day to 
Veterans Day. David Mondt was recognized on Tuesday, June 29. Below is 
the article in its entirety:

[[Page E1621]]

                   Boone County Veterans: David Mondt

                        (By Alexander Hutchins)

       At 21 years of age, many kids are still wet behind the ears 
     and trying to carve out a living for themselves. When David 
     Mondt was 22, he was flying nighttime raids to drop 
     paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne into the battlefields of 
     Europe.
       Mondt, 87, previously a first lieutenant in the Army Air 
     Corps during World War II, was born in Boone and has lived in 
     the community nearly his entire life. He lived in Perry for a 
     year in his childhood, at which time he was hit by a Hawkeye 
     Laundry truck. No lasting injuries resulted from the 
     accident, but Mondt soon returned to Boone and continued his 
     education.
       ``The biggest thing was getting a bicycle, which I 
     eventually did,'' Mondt said of the most significant part of 
     his childhood.
       When World War II began, Mondt watched the Iowa National 
     Guard mobilize and head to Louisiana.
       ``Then they started the draft, and I didn't want to wait 
     for that, so I joined the Air Force,'' he said.
       Mondt began training to be an Army Air Corps mechanic when 
     he first joined, as pilot training was only available to 
     soldiers 21 and older. While in mechanic training, the age 
     requirements for pilot training were lowered, and Mondt, then 
     18, applied and was accepted into program. He went into the 
     pilot school in Texas, and mere days before graduating the 
     program was scrapped and modified to the Flight Officer 
     Program.
       ``In one day, November the 10th, 1942, I was a Private, a 
     Staff Sergeant and a flight officer in a matter of hours,'' 
     Mondt said.
       Mondt was eventually placed with the 62nd Troop Carrier 
     Squadron, men with whom he would fly for the rest of the war. 
     Every man in the squadron would return home alive at the 
     war's conclusion.
       The squadron flew mostly day-to-day supply and troop 
     transport missions. Mondt flew a C-47 Skytrain cargo plane 
     for the entirety of the war, and said he missed a pre-D-Day 
     appearance by General Eisenhower because he was running a 
     load of supplies. Mondt originally flew runs in North Africa, 
     then as part of the American invasion of Italy where he 
     dropped paratroopers on Sicily.
       After the fascist collapse in Italy, Mondt was sent to 
     England and prepared for the D-Day invasion. Mondt would drop 
     members of the 82nd Airborne in the now-famous invasion of 
     Europe, and in the nighttime raid the C-47s received enemy 
     fire, but managed to deploy the paratroopers successfully.
       ``Everything was fine, as long as you were over England or 
     over the water. When we hit the coast of France we started 
     receiving fire from the Germans,'' Mondt said. One plane from 
     the squadron was shot down, but the crew survived.
       Mondt's plane would return from the mission, but it was hit 
     by anti-aircraft fire. All the windows were blown out and 
     Mondt was hit by the shrapnel flying about the cabin. Mondt 
     received the Purple Heart for his injury, although he would 
     carry pieces of shrapnel in his back for years.
       Despite all the events conspiring around him that would 
     become critical to world history, Mondt said that in the end 
     the daily activities were orderly and regimented.
       ``Whatever they told you to do, you did,'' Mondt said. ``It 
     was really just an everyday occurrence. When you weren't 
     dropping paratroopers, you were hauling supplies to frontline 
     troops.''
       Mondt flew British and Polish soldiers into the Battle of 
     Arnhem, but toward the end of the war more flights were 
     daytime operations. Mondt said that after crossing the Rhine 
     River, there were hardly any German air forces left. The 
     planes had all been bombed at the airfields by the Army Air 
     Corps.
       ``If you got back from the flight, you got a place to 
     sleep, and it was warm, and [you got] good food. The ground 
     troops ate out of mess kits. We never did,'' Mondt said.
       When he returned to the U.S. after his tour of duty, he was 
     offered a chance to leave the Air Corps while in St. Louis. 
     Mondt accepted and returned to Iowa. He didn't spend long out 
     of an airplane, however, as he joined the Army Aviation of 
     the National Guard upon returning to Boone. He would fly 
     aircraft with the National Guard, including helicopter 
     training in Texas, and would serve in the Guard until the age 
     of 60. At one point Mondt was told the Army would be 
     decommissioning all of its planes for helicopters, but he 
     never heard what came of that plan.
       Life was normal after the war. Mondt sold insurance when he 
     wasn't on Guard duty, and he married his wife, Yvonna. They 
     raised four children and lived a quiet life.
       ``Mowing grass,'' Mondt said jokingly when asked what he 
     did for a hobby while living in Boone. Mondt said the war had 
     little permanent effect on him, as his outlook on life after 
     the war was similar to his outlook on life before the 
     conflict.
       ``It [the war] hasn't affected me at all, as far as I can 
     recall,'' Mondt said. Beginning in 1951 his squadron from the 
     war began holding reunions, and the original gathering had 41 
     participants. Though the numbers have dwindled, Mondt still 
     attends reunion functions for the war.

  I commend David Mondt for his many years of loyalty and service to 
our great nation. It is an immense honor to represent him in the United 
States Congress, and I wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

                          ____________________