[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 83 (Monday, May 21, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H4245]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     REMEMBERING OUR VETERANS WHO HAVE MADE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kansas (Mr. Marshall) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. Speaker, good afternoon and welcome back to 
Washington, D.C. I am sure, like me, you spent some time back in your 
district this weekend.
  Every year, on Memorial Day, this country pauses to honor and 
remember those soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our 
freedoms and liberties.
  If I could, I would like to share a story from my own district, from 
my own State of Kansas, which I got to participate in this past 
weekend.
  For over 30 years now, Vietnam veterans have participated in the 
``Run for the Wall.'' I am sure this is something that many of us are 
all familiar with. Starting in California, some 1,500 Vietnam veterans 
hop on their motorcycles and they take three different routes across 
the country, with the goal to end up in Washington, D.C. at the Vietnam 
Veterans Memorial over Memorial Day weekend.
  Every year, one of their stops is in Goodland, Kansas, which is in 
the northwest corner of my State. I was allowed to participate in the 
hospitality extended by those folks in Goodland. If you could, imagine 
a small city of 4,000 to 5,000 people and having 600 motorcycles show 
up on a Saturday afternoon. They had been driving all the way from 
Albuquerque, New Mexico, through 30-mile-an-hour winds and rain, so 
they were starving by the time they got to Goodland, Kansas. And when 
they get there, we have a welcome reception for them with a complete 
dinner: a hot meal, fresh fruits, vegetables, the whole works.
  With one simple Facebook message, over 600 homemade deserts were 
brought from across Goodland to feed and recognize those Vietnam 
veterans.
  Then Sunday morning, the veterans wake up, after having been provided 
housing at Northwest Technical College for free, they wake up to a hot 
pancake and sausage breakfast, provided by the local Rotary Club.
  Then those veterans hop on their motorcycles, and they drive on the 
interstate across Kansas. At every interstate where there is an 
overpass, there are Kansas citizens waving at them and giving them the 
heroes welcome that they never got some, I guess, 40 years ago.
  They end up at Fort Riley, ``Home of the Big Red One,'' and there, 
Fort Riley makes a super welcome for those soldiers, and again, gives 
them a hero's welcome. These soldiers are going to show up here on 
Friday and they are going to get together at the Pentagon. At that 
point, over 500,000 motorcycles will be going across the mall of the 
United States Capital and on to Arlington Cemetery.
  I hope and pray that our news media will share that story of all 
those soldiers who are now trying to close the chapter, trying to honor 
those who went before them, to honor their fellow soldiers who never 
made it back from that war.
  I just ask that the House and this country pause to remember our 
Vietnam veterans, and all of our veterans going back to the Civil War, 
all those soldiers that have made the ultimate sacrifice.

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