[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 89 (Tuesday, June 7, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E831]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       IN MEMORY OF GREG CONNELL

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARK SANFORD

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 7, 2016

  Mr. SANFORD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in remembrance of Greg 
Connell, a stunt pilot from South Carolina, who unfortunately passed 
before his time while performing several weeks back in the Good 
Neighbor Day Airshow in Atlanta. Accordingly, I want to take a moment 
to offer my condolences to his wife, Ginger, as well as the host of 
additional family and friends he leaves behind.
   It was the inventor Leonardo da Vinci who once said, ``Once you have 
tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned 
skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to 
return.''
   Greg's eyes indeed always looked up. The heavens were his domain, 
and it is to them that he has returned.
   He followed in his father's footsteps and started flying back in 
1989 at the young age of 13, and his love of flight was obvious in the 
way that he lived life. Indeed, he flew at the Annual Water Festival 
down in Beaufort, South Carolina on numerous occasions, and my brother, 
John, flew with him many times. At a personal level, I spent New Year's 
down at the farm watching him do what he loved best: fly.
   And that he could. He made the impossible look all too easy. With 
grace and flair, he was mesmerizing in the way he took to the sky.
   Greg's story is that of pursuing with passion a quest for 
excellence, and I think there is a lesson all of us can learn from 
within those pages. In his memory, I would ask that we take a moment 
today for reflection, and pause in asking how we live up to his model 
of excellence in all we do. For those of us who knew him, we will miss 
him. I look forward to our reunion in the heavens above.

                          ____________________