[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 81 (Wednesday, May 10, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S2879]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               HONORING CORPORAL GEORGE A. PERREAULT, JR.

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I want to recognize George Albert 
Perreault, Jr., a Korean war veteran whose remains are being brought 
home to Vermont, 66 years after he was declared missing in action. CPL 
Perreault enlisted in the U.S. Army after graduating from Burlington 
High School, and he served bravely in the Korean war. CPL Perreault was 
assigned to Headquarters Battery, 15th Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd 
Infantry Division, which was supporting a regiment of the Republic of 
Korea Army in the area known as the Central Corridor in South Korea. 
Tragically, CPL Perreault went missing in 1951, after the Chinese 
People's Volunteer Forces launched a massive attack against the 
regiment at Changbong-ni. He was declared killed in action in 1954.
  CPL Perreault's family, including his sisters and their husbands, 
Pauline and Jim O'Brien and Lorraine and Edward Winkowski, devotedly 
preserved his memory over the years. Pauline and Jim also joined 
families of other missing servicemembers at Department of Defense 
meetings to discuss efforts to recover the remains of their loved ones.
  Last December, the POW/MIA Accounting Agency at the Defense 
Department identified CPL Perreault's remains using family DNA and 
anthropological analysis.
  While sisters Pauline and Lorraine and their spouses are now 
deceased, Pauline and Jim's children will be present to welcome their 
uncle home, including Karen O'Brien, James O'Brien, Jr., Patricia 
O'Brien, Mary Kay Wyand and her husband Daniel, John O'Brien and his 
wife Kathy, Anne Booska and her husband Joseph, Daniel O'Brien and his 
wife Angela, and Sheila O'Brien, as well as CPL Perreault's 18 great-
nieces and great-nephews, and 23 great-great-nieces and great-great-
nephews.
  I have long believed that we have a responsibility to families like 
CPL Perreault's to account for those missing in action from all 
conflicts. I commend the POW/MIA Accounting Agency for their tireless 
efforts to locate and identify the remains of CPL Perreault, more than 
six decades after he first went missing.
  I also want to thank the U.S. Army, the Vermont Army National Guard, 
and the Veterans of Foreign Wars for their assistance in returning CPL 
Perrault's remains to his family. Lastly, I also want to thank the 
staff at Delta Airlines and Burlington International Airport who made 
it possible for CPL Perreault's remains to be flown home to Vermont, 
where they will be received with full military honors, surrounded by 
his family.
  At long last, George Albert Perreault, Jr., will be laid to rest in 
Vermont on Saturday, May 13, next to his parents, George and Yvonne 
Perreault.

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