[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 16, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H613]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    RECOGNIZING SAM JOHNSON FOR DECADES OF SERVICE TO UNITED STATES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Taylor) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TAYLOR. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to stand here today as the 
Representative for Texas' Third Congressional District. This district 
was first represented by William Thomas Clark, a general in the Union 
Army in 1870. Since then, 19 people have represented the district, 
including myself. Most recently, a true American hero, Congressman Sam 
Johnson, represented the Third District in the Congress for 28 years.
  Prior to that, Congressman Johnson was in the U.S. Air Force. As I 
like to say, he shot down his first MiG in Korea. He served a ground 
tour in Vietnam, and in his second tour of Vietnam, on his 46th 
mission, he was flying his jet over an enemy gun position when his gun 
jammed. He did a circle around. He flew a second time, and that time, 
he was shot down. He then went to the Hanoi Hilton. There, he survived 
pernicious beatings and torture.
  But, Mr. Speaker, do you know what? Despite the tremendous pressure 
that he was under, Sam Johnson was unique among the prisoners of the 
Hanoi Hilton in that he never broke; he never gave in; and he never 
wavered in his patriotism, his faith in God, his courage, his 
sacrifices, and his commitment to this country.
  America is eternally grateful for his service.
  After he got back from the Hanoi Hilton, he came back to his beloved 
Shirley and his children back in Texas. He was in the Air Force for a 
while, and then he went into business.
  But he wanted to continue to serve. In 1984, he ran for the Texas 
House of Representatives, and he was elected in the Third District in a 
special election in 1991.
  Here in the United States Congress, he served for 28 years. He served 
on the Ways and Means Committee and continued to be an icon of virtue, 
a paragon of service, and a man whose shoes I can never truly fill but 
in whose footsteps I resolve to try to walk in.

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