[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 151 (Thursday, November 18, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1965]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO WILLIAM FERRY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LATHAM

                                of iowa

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 18, 2010

  Mr. LATHAM. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize William Ferry, a World 
War II Army veteran from Boone, 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. William Ferry was recognized on Tuesday, October 5. Below 
is the article in its entirety:

                  Boone County Veterans: William Ferry

                           (By Greg Eckstrom)

       William Ferry joined the Army, along with his cousin, for 
     pretty much the usual reasons.
       ``My cousin and I, we were going to be big shots,'' Ferry 
     said with a laugh.
       In many ways, Ferry was.
       Originally from Pilot Mound, and returning to Boone after 
     World War II, where he lived at the same address his whole 
     life, Ferry entered his military career by volunteering 
     rather than being drafted.
       ``My cousin and I decided to join the Army and see the 
     world, so we went down and joined the Army,'' he said. 
     ``Well, that's the last I'd seen of him for three years.''
       Ferry, although speaking in a serious voice, seemed to put 
     a lighter spin on his military experience than some. In 
     recalling his basic training at Spokane, Wash., Ferry 
     remembers learning how to type.
       ``They asked if I could type,'' he said. ``And they gave me 
     a book and said, `Here, you've got a week to learn.' They 
     give me a book and let me go.''
       The definition of self-taught. Ferry breezed through the 
     book and learned to use a typewriter, admittedly saying that 
     fortunately he didn't have to learn how to type extremely 
     quickly.
       While going through basic training in Washington, Ferry met 
     the woman he would later marry . . . a marriage that happened 
     prior to Ferry heading overseas for service. The position 
     that Ferry was assigned to, however, didn't lend itself to 
     easing the worries of his new bride's parents on their 
     daughter's husband.
       ``They put me in a cryptographic section, which is decoding 
     and encoding secret messages,'' he said. ``The FBI checked 
     out my family, her family and everybody she knew and 
     everybody they knew. Her folks got to wondering what was 
     going on.''
       The background check passed, however, and Ferry was sent 
     overseas.
       ``They got us on a boat, and they made MPs out of us,'' he 
     said. ``We had to be an MP . . . had to work four hours on 
     and four hours off for seven days a week for 31 days. And we 
     ended up in India.''
       The boat pulled into a harbor with a large sign supported 
     on two columns, reading ``Gateway to India.'' They had landed 
     in Bombay.
       Ferry was put onto a train and traveled for a week until he 
     arrived at his post--a building that, putting it lightly, was 
     a rather safe place to be stationed.
       ``We went to a building that was inside of a compound that 
     had about a 10 foot wall around us,'' he said. ``We worked 
     behind locked doors and we had to decode and encode incoming 
     messages and outgoing messages to the headquarters.''
       The work was interesting, however the climate was hot. 
     Ferry said it took him six months just to get used to the 
     heat. Then came the monsoons.
       ``They blew the roof off of our barracks one night, which 
     was made out of grass,'' he said. ``I never heard it rain so 
     hard than down there when that monsoon hit. It really 
     rained.''
       Ferry recalls one night that he was working alone at the 
     compound, decoding a message that had come in while a general 
     paced back and forth behind him. Ferry wasn't sure what he 
     was there for, but he decoded the message, and watched the 
     general grab it and take off. He found out the next day that 
     the message he had decoded was the one giving the orders to 
     bomb Hiroshima.
       Heading back to the United States following his time 
     overseas, Ferry recalls arriving in Miami and the feeling of 
     relief to be back in his country.
       ``I got back to Miami, got down and kissed the ground,'' he 
     said.
       Returning, arguably as a big shot, Ferry fondly recalls his 
     time in the service, noting his favorite part as being the 
     opportunity to travel.
       ``Just seeing the world,'' he said.

  I commend William Ferry 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.

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