[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 180 (Friday, December 11, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1777]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             JOSEPH DeMOTT

                                  _____
                                 

                          HON. JOSEPH R. PITTS

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, December 11, 2015

  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Joseph DeMott of 
Lititz, Pennsylvania.
  Mr. DeMott served our country in the Army Air Corps during World War 
II, suffering severe leg wounds in a mission over what is now Jakarta. 
While he was in the hospital, Japan overtook the city and he was 
captured in March 1942. He was sent to a POW camp to do farm labor, 
build fences, dig ditches, and work on the docks. Joseph DeMott was 
starved, beaten, and temporarily blinded when the camp was liberated in 
September 1945. For his heroism, he received two Purple Hearts.
  After the war, back home in Pennsylvania, he became an electrical 
engineer after graduating from Penn State. He went on later to work as 
a plant manager at Champion Blower and Forge in Lancaster.
  This October, 70 years later, he and seven other former POWs held by 
Japan during World War II traveled to Japan as guests of the Japanese 
government to revisit and reconcile with their past.
  Mr. DeMott's story is an outstanding lesson to us all not only in 
courage, selflessness, patriotism, and valor, but also in forgiveness. 
Those who are truly strong are strong enough to forgive.
  Mr. Speaker, there are heroes all around us in this country. I am 
proud to represent over 40,000 of them in the Sixteenth Congressional 
District of Pennsylvania.

                          ____________________