[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 42 (Thursday, March 21, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E360-E361]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            KEN SIMPSON--A NORTH CAROLINA AND AMERICAN HERO

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. HOWARD COBLE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 21, 2013

  Mr. COBLE. Mr. Speaker, if somehow America could combine in one human 
being all the qualities we admire in our fighting men--bravery, 
strength, skill, determination, loyalty, patriotism, and compassion for 
his fellow soldier--since the middle of the 20th century--its name 
would have been Kenneth Walton Simpson of North Carolina.
  The list of men and women to whom America owes a debt of gratitude is 
long indeed, and prominent on that list is Kenneth Simpson.
  This is a small expression of that gratitude to this honest-to-
goodness American fighting man who, now an octogenarian, spent 23 years 
serving this country as a soldier, who performed his duties gallantly 
and with remarkable heroism, then retired without the array of military 
decorations that perhaps should have adorned the last uniform he wore.
  The essence of this fighting man has been captured in a new book, 
Warrior: From Grenades to Greeting Cards, the True Story of an American 
Fighting Man, by North Carolina author Wilt Browning. Wilt is my 
constituent and friend and a noted journalist and author.
  Simpson's story is the stuff of heroism, American style. It is as 
though he was from childhood destined to be a fighting man, and in his 
post-military career his fighting spirit remarkably wound up shaping an 
American industry in the second half of the century.

[[Page E361]]

  Ken once was perhaps the youngest American fighting man since the 
Civil War. At the age of just 14, he talked his way into the fight when 
World War II was raging. When the Navy found out that this seaman 
assigned to the destroyer escort USS Edwin A. Howard was far younger 
than he had claimed, they put him ashore in the Philippines. He spent 
two months hitch-hiking his way back to North Carolina in something of 
a Huckleberry Finn odyssey. He still calls that journey the greatest 
adventure of his life. ``What young boy wouldn't love an adventure like 
that?'' he still asks today, puzzled that most of us would find such a 
challenge daunting indeed.
  Ken wasn't about to let a little thing like age keep him from serving 
his country, and when he turned 18 he legally signed on once again, 
this time in the Army. His fighting days had only just begun. He rose 
through the ranks as an enlisted man and then an officer, a man's man 
in charge of men. It was during the Korean Conflict that the rare 
commitment and courage of this man was most remarkable. Again and 
again, he led his men into battle and never lost a one though he on 
several occasions personally braved enemy fire to return to the 
battlefield to rescue wounded fallen comrades. Once wounded himself, he 
was ordered by doctors to recuperate far from the sounds of battle. He 
refused to leave his men, and returned to the front lines once again 
and to more battles.
  To this day, Ken carries in his aging body the shrapnel from twice 
having been blown up by grenades, and he bears the scars that testify 
to the fact that he has faced and survived many battles.
  He served our country for all those years as a military man, and then 
he served his fellow Americans as something of a rogue in the greeting 
card industry. And he did that so well that his efforts saved two major 
national companies from disappearing prematurely at the hands of 
corporate raiders and kept hundreds of Americans at work for years in 
the greeting card industry.
  Simpson lives a quiet life now in a home atop Walker Bald, a tall 
mountain in western North Carolina, which he shares with his wife 
Laura. Though his steps have slowed and his hearing is no longer as 
keen as it once was--despite the concussions of nearby exploding 
grenades of the past--he remains the epitome of an American fighting 
man.
  And America owes Kenneth Walton Simpson and fighting men such as him 
our sincere appreciation. On behalf of the citizens of the Sixth 
District of North Carolina, I am proud to bring his story to light 
through this statement in the Congressional Record and to highlight 
Wilt Browning's outstanding book about an outstanding North Carolina 
and American hero.

                          ____________________