[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 103 (Tuesday, July 12, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H4867]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                  TRIBUTE TO LEONARD EARL ROBERTS, SR.

  (Ms. BASS of California asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. BASS of California. Madam Speaker, I come to the House floor 
today to pay tribute to a man of exceptional valor, a quiet hero, a 
committed family man, a successful entrepreneur, and my constituent: 
Leonard Earl Roberts, Sr.
  Mr. Roberts lived an extraordinary life. At the age of 16, he joined 
the Civilian Conservation Corps and later voluntarily enlisted in the 
U.S. Army after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Platoon Sergeant Roberts 
led a special unit ashore on D-day. He and his entire squadron received 
the Bronze Indian Arrowhead for Assault Troopers, and he received the 
Purple Heart.
  After he was honorably discharged at the close of the war, Mr. 
Roberts returned home to claim the hand of his childhood sweetheart, 
Dessie, and then used the GI Bill to attend the Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology. Mr. Roberts used his MIT engineering degree to invent a 
machine that would revolutionize the aerospace industry. And in 1972 in 
Torrance, California, with his wife and family by his side, Leonard Sr. 
established Roberts Aerospace Manufacturing Engineering Corporation, 
one of today's leading companies in the industry.
  Leonard Earl Roberts, Sr. was a great American born of a great 
generation. He was a man of service, honor, integrity, faith, and 
family. He lived an inspirational life, and our Nation will forever be 
enriched because of him.

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