[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 22, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H2900-H2902]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1940
      HONORING THE SERVICE AND SACRIFICE OF OUR NATION'S VETERANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Fortenberry) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. FORTENBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I recently visited the Eastern Nebraska 
Veterans Home in Bellevue. It's a lovely place that is well-designed to 
care for those who have served in the protection of our country. I had 
a nice visit, talking with many of the veterans there, each with their 
own unique stories of service to our Nation.
  A conversation, though, with one man in particular, Mr. Speaker, has 
stuck with me ever since. Now in his nineties, Don McBride sat quietly 
as I was speaking to the entire group. But as I was leaving, I went 
over to him to thank him for his commendable service to our Nation; but 
as soon as I got those words out, Don stopped me.
  You see, Don has a very interesting story. As I understand it, he did 
not directly enlist in the United States military. It was a unique 
situation. Don was a pilot with Pan Am Airlines, and during World War 
II, he helped the war effort by flying planes into China. During World 
War II, China was our ally.
  In all, Don flew 524 missions. He had to put a few planes down a 
couple of times because they were shot so badly, but he didn't stop. He 
and his fellow pilots did whatever was needed for the war effort, 
whether it was engaging Japanese aircraft or delivering aid to remote 
places in that rough terrain.
  For his service, Don was awarded the Presidential Citation, four 
Bronze Stars, the Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the 
China Service Medal. He didn't want to tell me all this. He was quite 
reserved about it, but his nurse encouraged him to share his story.
  But, again, as I went to thank him, Don stopped me and he said this, 
Mr. Speaker. He said: We don't need any thanks. Every man here did it 
because he wanted to, because it was necessary. I don't know of anybody 
who has ever been sorry for serving.
  Mr. Speaker, it is this spirit of selflessness that lives on in so 
many of our veterans and the military men and women who are serving our 
Nation today. They gave, and continue to give, for one simple reason: 
it is necessary and it is their duty.
  On Memorial Day, this coming Monday, we will gather for an occasion 
that is both solemn and joyful. We honor those who gave everything in 
service to their countrymen. The formal remembrance of fallen heroes 
mixes feelings of both sorrow and pride. That a person would lay down 
his life for his friends, for another, is the noblest of human ideals. 
That we would unite in gratitude to reflect on the sacrifices of those 
who have gone before us is one of the greatest human expressions.
  And for those who are veterans, Mr. Speaker, who have stood next to 
persons who have given their all, perhaps holding them as they died, 
watching helplessly as war consumed another innocent life, their living 
presence, Mr. Speaker, the living presence of our veterans today is an 
honor to those who did not come home.
  Communal remembrance is a longstanding human tradition. When we focus 
our remembrance on the war veterans who have sacrificed for us, the act 
is particularly meaningful and appropriate.

[[Page H2901]]

  Ever since there has been fighting and dying in war, there's been a 
calling in the human heart to memorialize the fallen heroes of battle, 
especially in this Nation, born in war, where the legacies of those who 
died defending our country are written on our hearts and are seen 
clearly in the blessings of liberty that we still hold today.
  In spite of our political divisions, in spite of the rancor and 
divisiveness that sometimes exists in this body and in our Nation, we 
are still called to yield to proper reflection about that which is 
noble and that which is good.
  Mr. Speaker, yet, for nearly 100 years, our fledgling country did not 
have a day set aside to remember and celebrate the sacrifices of fallen 
soldiers. In America, the practice of Memorial Day began in the years 
immediately following the Civil War.
  In 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans established 
what was called Decoration Day at the time for the Nation to decorate 
the graves of the Civil War dead with flowers. The day picked was May 
30, a day in late spring to ensure that the flowers would be in full 
bloom across our Nation.
  Throughout the countryside, people began to visit cemeteries to 
decorate the graves of fallen soldiers, both Union and Confederate. On 
one noted occasion, women living near Columbus, Mississippi, deep 
within the defeated Confederacy, were so disturbed by the neglected 
graves of Union soldiers that they took care to see that these graves 
were properly decorated as well.
  Decoration Day grew in popularity and in practice, and by the early 
1900s, ceremonies were held on May 30 throughout the Nation. After 
World War I, the day was expanded to honor those who have died in all 
American wars. Decoration Day soon became known as Memorial Day. But it 
was only in 1971 that Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by 
an act of Congress, to be celebrated annually on the last Monday in 
May.
  Mr. Speaker, this coming Monday, we will continue this solemn 
tradition and reflect upon its profound meaning. We honor those fallen 
heroes of yesterday for their sacrifices on our behalf. Their bravery 
has afforded us the liberty and security we enjoy today.
  But the price of the blessings of peace has not come without great 
cost. Since the Revolutionary War, more than 42 million Americans have 
risked their lives for our country. Of those, more than 656,000 
servicemembers have died in battle. Their loss runs deep in the lives 
of those whom they left behind. Wives lost husbands, husbands lost 
wives, parents lost children, and children lost parents. The soldier's 
ultimate sacrifice is not merely his own, Mr. Speaker.
  In 1944, along the northern coastline of France in a place called 
Normandy, the future of civilization hung in the balance. At 6:30 a.m. 
on June 6, the first wave of American troops landed at a place called 
Omaha Beach. As their Higgins boat troop carriers opened, 18- and 19-
year-old young men from cities and farms, from New York to Nebraska, 
were asked to do the impossible--dash across hundreds of yards of open 
beach with no cover, in the face of a hail of German machine gun fire 
and mortars, and take the high ground.
  Somehow, someway, they did this. They withstood the violence and made 
their way to the steep hillside.
  Mr. Speaker, last winter I stood where those soldiers landed, at 
water's edge, and looked across that beach. It is hard to get the mind 
around the chaos of that day, to feel what they felt as the horror 
unfolded before them.
  I made my way to that steep hillside, now so peaceful and lovely, and 
stood in a German machine gun bunker. A young German soldier named 
Severloh manned the machine gun that day. And in a book that he wrote 
shortly before he died a few years ago, Severloh said that he wept as 
he fired his gun at the slaughter that unfolded before him.
  I walked around the nearby American cemetery, with its orderly rows 
of white crosses testifying to the dear price our soldiers paid. I 
stopped at the grave of a young man named Billy D. Harris, from 
Oklahoma. Billy D. Harris had married young and died young. His wife 
didn't know that her husband had been killed and buried there until 
about 10 years ago. Such is the chaos of war. She never remarried. She 
had all her hopes that her husband would one day return to her.
  I proceeded on to the little town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, where our 
airborne troops landed the night before the D-day invasion.

                              {time}  1950

  Some fell into the town square occupied by Germans. One soldier's 
parachute got caught on the church roof and he hung there as the battle 
raged below. A replica of the parachute and soldier still hangs from 
the church today.
  In August of 1944, a young medical doctor left his wife and two 
children and entered the Army. He was first headquartered at a hospital 
in England, where the last official records show that he was located. 
As Patton's Army moved against the Germans, Captain Luther Sexton 
Fortenberry went into action in France, probably to begin field 
operations there. In November of 1944, he was killed by ordnance 
explosion. He was my grandfather. He was initially buried at the 
cemetery at Sainte-Mere-Eglise. Now he is reinterred here in Washington 
at Arlington National Cemetery.
  As part of our civic life, Mr. Speaker, we honor the memory of all 
those who have served us. We all know of the great battles and heroic 
sacrifices at places like Bunker Hill, Omaha Beach, Khe Sanh, and 
Fallujah. What we do not know are the untold stories, witnessed by no 
one, of Americans who fought it out to the death to preserve our 
country. We also do not know the untold stories of the many who left 
their families and quietly performed their duty with no questions or 
demands made; the veterans who maintained tanks and aircraft, cooked, 
computed, cleaned, and drove.
  Today, we honor our loved ones and ancestors lost long ago as well as 
those who have left us more recently. The sting of loss is not so 
distant for some whose loved ones have given their lives of late in 
Iraq and Afghanistan. Of the American soldiers who have been killed 
there, 72 were Nebraskans.
  Like so many of our colleagues, Mr. Speaker, I have attended many 
funerals and memorial services for those who have been killed from my 
district. I have seen many of the families bravely bear the weight of 
this devastation. I have seen communities come together to honor their 
local heroes and to help bring healing to these hurting families. I 
could not be more proud of these patriots and their family members for 
their remarkable bravery, their remarkable honor, their character, 
their selflessness--young men and women of the highest caliber who, 
like so many before them, gave themselves for their country, fighting 
courageously for America and our ideals of liberty, equality, and 
justice for which they died.
  Mr. Speaker, I was recently contacted by the family of John 
Douangdara. John and his family are new Americans. His parents came 
here from Laos. He was killed several years ago when his helicopter was 
shot down in Afghanistan. You may remember the incident. We lost 30 
servicemembers that day. On Memorial Day, John's family is gathering in 
South Sioux City, Nebraska, to erect a statue in his honor. I'm 
grateful--no, perhaps privileged--to be asked to join them on that day.
  Like his fellow soldiers, John Douangdara was an American. He was 
loyal. He was brave. And now he is free. His sacrifice, and the 
sacrifice of all American veterans, brings to mind the seriousness of 
our time.
  Memorial Day is an especially important time of reflection for 
lawmakers. We carry a tremendous responsibility to recognize the real-
life consequences behind our policy deliberations, analyses, and votes.
  On that first Decoration Day in 1868, Major General John Logan 
offered his posts these words as he ordered them to decorate the graves 
of the war dead. He said this, Mr. Speaker:

       We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. Let 
     pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent 
     visitors and fond mourners. Let no neglect, no ravages of 
     time, testify to the present or to the coming generations 
     that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and 
     undivided Republic.

  Mr. Speaker, during a visit to a nearby hospital to see our wounded 
here in Washington, there was a soldier there whose wounds were pretty 
devastating. As I was leaving, I noticed there was a sign hanging on 
the outside of his door.

[[Page H2902]]

It said: America--home of the free because of the brave.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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