[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 181 (Thursday, November 15, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H9528-H9529]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     TECHNICAL SERGEANT VIRGIL POE, ONE OF THE GREATEST GENERATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, born in the 1920s, he grew up in the 
Depression of the 1930s poor, just like many American children in the 
rural areas.

[[Page H9529]]

Fresh vegetables were grown in the family garden behind the small frame 
house, and his mother made sandwiches for school out of homemade bread. 
Store-bought bread was for the rich. He grew up belonging to the Boy 
Scouts, playing the trumpet in high school band, raising rabbits and 
bees, and he went to church on most Sundays.
  In 1944, this 18-year-old country boy who had never been more than 50 
miles from home finally found himself going through basic training in 
the United States Army at Camp Wolters, Texas. After that, he rode the 
train with hundreds of other American GIs--mostly teenagers, really--to 
New York City for an ocean trip on a cramped Liberty ship to fight in 
the great World War II.
  As a soldier in the Seventh Army, he went from France on to survive 
the Battle of the Bulge and through the cities of Aachen, Stuttgart, 
Cologne, and Bonn.
  As a teenager, he saw the concentration camps and the victims of the 
Nazis. He saw incredible numbers of other teenage Americans buried in 
graves throughout France, a sobering monument to those soldiers at 
Normandy.
  After Germany surrendered, Tech Sergeant Virgil Poe went back to Fort 
Hood, Texas, to be reequipped for the invasion of Japan. He was put on 
a train going to Seattle from where he was supposed to be sent to the 
South Pacific; but he learned when he arrived in Seattle that Japan had 
surrendered, so he was ordered back to Fort Hood, Texas. It was there 
that he met Mom at a Wednesday night prayer meeting service at the 
Church of Christ.
  It has only been in the last 10 or 15 years that this GI, my father, 
began to talk about World War II. He still would not say much, except 
he does say that young Americans are still buried in France and they 
are the heroes.
  After the war, he opened a DX service station, where he pumped gas, 
sold tires, fixed cars, and began a family. Deciding he needed to go to 
college, he moved to west Texas and enrolled in a small Christian 
college called Abilene Christian College.
  He and his wife and two small children lived in an old converted Army 
barracks with other such families, and he supported us by working 
nights at KRBC Radio and climbing telephone poles for Ma Bell, later 
known as Southwestern Bell.
  He finished college, became an engineer, and worked over 40 years at 
Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in Houston, Texas. He turned down a 
promotion to transfer to New York City because it wasn't Texas, and he 
said ``it was no place to raise a family.''
  Dad instilled in my sister and me the values of being a neighbor, 
loving our country, loving our heritage, and trusting in the Good Lord. 
He still gets mad at the East Coast media. He flies the flag on 
holidays. He goes to church on Sunday, and he takes Mom out to eat 
almost every Friday night.
  He stands in the front yard and talks to his neighbors, and he can 
still fix anything. He mowed his own grass until he was 90 years of 
age, and you better believe he has a strong opinion on politics and 
world events. He gives plenty of advice to all people, including me, 
usually at 5:30 in the morning. He has two computers in his home 
office. He sends emails to hundreds of his buddies all over the world.
  Dad and Mom still live in Houston not far from where I grew up.
  As we recognize those who served our country this week, we honor not 
only my dad, but all of those American heroes. Dad is now 93 years of 
age, and he was one of those individuals. He is the best man I ever 
met, one of the charter members of the Greatest Generation. I hope I 
turn out like him, the man I admire the most.
  Virgil Poe: a good man, good soldier, good father, and that is plenty 
for one life.
  And that is just the way it is.

                          ____________________