[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 54 (Monday, April 16, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E520-E521]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 75TH BIRTHDAY OF THE AIR FORCE'S 3D WEATHER SQUADRON AT FORT HOOD, TX

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN R. CARTER

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, April 16, 2012

  Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to 
celebrate the 75th Birthday of the Air Force's 3d Weather Squadron at 
Fort Hood, Texas and honor the squadron's first commander, 
Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient General Leon W. Johnson.
  Mr. Speaker, I have the high honor of representing the brave men and 
women at Fort Hood, Texas, the largest military installation in the 
world. Every day that I have the opportunity to serve in Congress, I do 
so knowing that my number one responsibility is to give our men and 
women in uniform the support and resources they need to be successful. 
Each time I visit Fort Hood, I see America's finest, the Airmen and 
Soldiers who put it all on the line to allow us to live in the greatest 
country on Earth.
  Representing Fort Hood, Texas also comes with the sober reminder of 
the sacrifice that

[[Page E521]]

our young men and women in the military and their families make to the 
cause of freedom. For 75 years, the Airmen of the 3d Weather Squadron 
have exemplified this sacrifice as they stood alongside their Army 
brethren in support of a long list of military operations. In just the 
past 20 years, the 3d Weather Squadron has deployed for Operations 
Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Operation Allied Force, Operation 
Unified Response, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operations Iraqi 
Freedom and New Dawn.
  When activated on 1 July 1937, the 3d Weather Squadron was a part of 
the U.S. Army, as the Air Force had not yet been established. Today the 
squadron continues a proud history of faithfully providing Battlefield 
Weather support to the Army, both in garrison and in combat. The stated 
mission of 3d Weather Squadron is to ``deliver superior weather 
capability when called upon to support any worldwide land component 
tasking.'' True to this mission, the Airmen of the 3d Weather Squadron 
have sustained a continual, unbroken deployed presence in Southwest 
Asia dating back to 2003 alongside numerous Army units including III 
Corps, 1st Armored Division, 1st Infantry Division, 1st Cavalry 
Division, and 4th Infantry Division. On any given day, approximately 25 
percent of the squadron is deployed with the Army.
  Mr. Speaker, the 75th Birthday of 3d Weather Squadron also affords us 
the opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary life of the squadron's 
first commander and a singularly heroic warrior, General Leon W. 
Johnson. Leon W. Johnson was born in Columbia, MO, in 1904. He spent 
his boyhood in Columbia and Moline, KS. He later graduated from the 
U.S. Military Academy and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in June 
1926. Lieutenant Johnson decided he'd ``have to know something about 
weather if he intended to be a leader in the Air Force,'' so he 
enrolled at the California Institute of Technology and earned a 
Master's Degree in Meteorology in 1936. The next year he became one of 
the Army Air Corps Weather Service's first 22 weather officers and 
assumed command of the 3d Weather Squadron when it was activated on 1 
July 1937. General Johnson subsequently took command of the 44th Bomb 
Group during World War II and earned the Medal of Honor for his role in 
the strategically crucial raid on the Ploesti oil fields in Rumania. 
General Johnson served in a wide variety of critical positions with 
both the Army and the Air Force throughout his 34 years of service.
  Mr. Speaker, I will close by asking my colleagues to join me in 
recognizing the heroic Airmen of the 3d Weather Squadron as they mark 
the 3d Weather Squadron's 75th birthday and that we also honor an 
American patriot and hero, Medal of Honor Recipient General Leon W. 
Johnson.

                          ____________________