[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 133 (Wednesday, September 17, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1440]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              HONORING WORLD WAR II VETERAN ARTHUR NAGLER

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 17, 2014

  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a 
decorated World War II veteran, Mr. Arthur Nagler, who lives in my 
Congressional district, and to point out a serious flaw in the ability 
of veterans to obtain medals they deserve for the service they gave to 
our country.
  Arthur served our country in some of the fiercest battles of World 
War II. After his arrival in France following the Normandy invasion, he 
was a medic with the 170th General Hospital where he saved the lives of 
many of his fellow soldiers. In recognition of his service, he was 
awarded several medals, including the Legion of Honor by the Republic 
of France.
  I am so very proud of Arthur, as we all should be. I want to 
highlight a point of supreme irony in his case, however. During one 
battle, as Mr. Nagler worked in his hospital tent saving the lives of 
wounded soldiers, an enemy bomb landed nearby, seriously wounding him 
from shrapnel and knocking him unconscious.
  Because of the critical need for doctors, Mr. Nagler was revived, his 
wounds were ``stitched up,'' as he puts it, and he was sent on with his 
fellow medics to continue saving other soldiers' lives. Unfortunately, 
any records of his wounds apparently do not exist. He concedes that, in 
the confusion, the records of his injuries may not have been recorded 
or the records may have been lost as the hospital was hurriedly moved 
to the next battlefield. However, there is a distinct possibility that 
a record was made of his injury and it was destroyed in the great fire 
that swept through a section of the National Personnel Records Center 
in St. Louis in 1973. The fire destroyed nearly 50 years worth of 
records of those who served our nation in uniform from 1912-1959.
  That is why I rise today, Mr. Speaker. In my 21 years in Congress, I 
have been contacted many times by veterans seeking not just medals, but 
the records they need to prove their eligibility for disability 
benefits and pensions. I do not fault the army, as they must work with 
what records they have to give veterans everything they deserve. Still, 
after sacrificing so much for our nation and its freedoms, I feel there 
must be some way to correct this situation. After 60 years of trying, 
Arthur Nagler has given up hope of ever getting the Purple Heart that 
he rightly deserves. Everyone should consider the supreme irony of a 
man who spent World War II saving the lives of other wounded American 
soldiers, is then wounded himself, and has not been awarded a Purple 
Heart.
  I respectfully ask that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle work 
together to fix this absurd situation, not just for Arthur Nagler, but 
for all veterans in similar situations. Let us give these brave men and 
women the respect they deserve.

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