[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 134 (Thursday, September 18, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S5852]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERING JERRY L. HEDRICK

  Mr. BURR. Mr. President, as the ranking member of the Committee on 
Veterans' Affairs, I rise today to pay tribute to Jerry L. Hedrick, a 
lifelong North Carolinian, distinguished public servant, a United 
States Army veteran, and a leader of distinction at many levels in the 
American Legion, who died on August 25, 2014, concluding a life of 
superb and selfless service to the veterans of North Carolina and 
America. Jerry passed away on the eve of the American Legion's National 
Convention in Charlotte, NC, an event he had been actively planning for 
almost until the moment his life ended. There is no doubt in anyone's 
mind that Jerry put his heart and soul into the Legion's mission 
throughout his life.
  Jerry was born in Lexington, NC a year after the end of World War II 
and spent his younger, formative years in Davidson County, where he was 
graduated from Lexington Senior High in 1965, just as the war in 
Vietnam was escalating. Jerry joined the United States Army in 1966 and 
was trained as an armor crewman. He was subsequently assigned to Alpha 
Troop, First Squadron, of the Fourteenth Armored Cavalry Regiment, 
based in Fulda, Germany. This was in the early years of the Cold War 
that pitted North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces, commanded by the 
United States, at outposts and in forward bases along the border that 
divided a free and democratic West Germany from a repressive communist 
regime in Soviet supported East Germany. The open lowlands around 
Jerry's base were known then and for the next 25 years as the Fulda 
Gap, where NATO expected a Soviet invasion of Western Europe would come 
through. At that time America's attention was turning toward Southeast 
Asia and the hot war there, but Jerry and his fellow soldiers had a 
vital mission, one that would continue until the demise of the Soviet 
Union.
  Jerry received an honorable discharge from the Army in 1968 and 
returned home to North Carolina. Soon after, he joined American Legion 
Post 8 in Lexington and found work as a mail carrier with the U.S. 
Postal Service, where he worked faithfully from 1969 until 2001. In the 
early post-Army years, Jerry somehow found the time amidst all his 
activities to study and obtain a business degree from Rowan Technical 
Community College. Years later, when Jerry was asked what spurred his 
decision to join the Legion, he simply stated, ``I was asked by fellow 
workers and I wanted to help veterans.''
  Throughout his over four decades of service to the Legion and to 
North Carolina's veterans, Jerry Hedrick held almost every leadership 
position from Post Financial Officer, to Post Adjutant, to Post 
Commander, and went on to serve as both a Department and District Vice 
Commander and Commander, as well as rising to National level committees 
that addressed Americanism, Military Affairs, and International 
Affairs. Jerry was also the North Carolina Department's representative 
to the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC and 
would say in later years that some of his fondest memories were from 
his time on the National Executive Committee, which is responsible for 
drafting the annual budget and signing off on the American Legion's 
spending.
  While he devoted much of his life's work to the Legion and to 
veterans' issues, Jerry Hedrick was also devoted to his wife Marie and 
to his family, and a prominent figure in his community, through 
volunteerism for the Moose, Masonic, and Elks Lodges.
  When I reflect on the sum total of Jerry's life, I see a man who knew 
that the calling of service and the value of fellowship were essential 
elements of the American experience and what truly bind us together. As 
an advocate for veterans, his legacy is typified in the old saying that 
the measure of a man is not what he does but what he gives. Jerry lived 
those words until his last day with us.
  I offer his wife Marie and his entire family my deepest condolences. 
They, all of North Carolina, and this Nation, have lost a lifelong 
friend, a true gentleman, a stalwart leader for veterans, and a role 
model for those committed to community and national service.

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