[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 13, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H2686-H2687]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           HONORING THE LIFE OF FORMER CONGRESSMAN RALPH HALL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Olson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, on March 7 of this year, 6 days ago, we lost 
our colleague Ralph Hall.
  Ralph's journey among us here in Congress and our world started on 
May 3, 1923, in a town called Fate, Texas. Never in American history 
has a town of birth been more appropriate for a man than Fate, Texas. 
Ralph's life was all about fate, great faith, and God.
  As fate would have it, Ralph left Fate and moved to wall when he was 
3 years old. He started working there at a local convenience store.
  As fate would have it, guess who showed up? Bonnie and Clyde, the 
notorious killers on a rampage throughout Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, 
that part of our country. They gave Ralph a 25-cent tip--a quarter--big 
money in those days. He was so excited, he showed his boss the quarter 
and noticed a newspaper lying there on the

[[Page H2687]]

floor. Whose picture was on the front of that paper? Bonnie and Clyde.
  He told his boss, ``They just came here. They are in Rockwall. That 
is their car.'' His boss called the local sheriff. Ralph couldn't hear 
the conversation, but the sheriff said something to the effect of, 
``Thanks for calling about Bonnie and Clyde. I've got two stray dogs 
I've got to catch. Once I get those dogs, I'm going after Bonnie and 
Clyde.''
  After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Ralph joined our Navy to 
fly naval aircraft. He went to Pensacola, Florida, for his first 
training.
  As fate would have it, he met a Hall of Fame baseball player, Ted 
Williams of the Boston Red Sox, the last man to hit over .400 in a 
season. Knowing he had Ted on his baseball team, Ralph found a young 
Army sergeant and said: ``Hey, son, I want to bet you my whole paycheck 
on a baseball game, Navy versus Army.''
  The day of the game, Ralph knocked on Ted's door. Ted answered with a 
fishing pole and some gear to go fishing. Ralph said, ``You have to 
play baseball and beat Army.'' Ted said, ``I came here to learn to fly, 
defend America, and then fish.'' Ralph held the game up so Ted could go 
AWOL, absent without leave, and go fishing.
  Of course, that night, Ralph had to go home to his queen, his beloved 
Mary Ellen, and tell her, ``Honey, I have just lost my entire paycheck 
betting on a baseball game with the Army.''
  Ralph got out of flight school and went to war. He flew the F6F 
Hellcat on aircraft carriers. Now, I was a naval aviator, and I have to 
tell you, those guys were crazy, crazy, crazy courageous. Right now, if 
you land on an aircraft carrier, you have what is called the meatball. 
This ball gives you course and glide slope. In those days, they had 
guys with paddles.
  Ralph said his proudest achievement in naval aviation during the war 
was to make sure on his record book that his takeoffs were the same 
number as his landings.
  As fate would have it, once again, Ralph came home to Rockwall, 
Texas, to become a lawyer. The local county judge retired, so there was 
a vacancy. People said, ``Ralph, you should run our county. File for 
election.'' Ralph didn't want to play politics. That wasn't his 
business. But driving home, he said, ``You know what? I will just 
apply, maybe be there for just a couple months and go back home to my 
lawyer job.'' He filed 1 minute before the deadline that year, 1 
minute.
  He was driving home. The local radio was booming: ``Ralph Hall, 
running for county judge.'' Guess who was outside his home, waiting 
with an angered look on her face? His queen, Mary Ellen.
  That fate got Ralph going into public service and got Ralph here on 
Capitol Hill.
  As fate would have it, when America goes back to the Moon sometime in 
the next couple years, they are going to do that because of Ralph Hall.
  God bless Ralph Hall. As our dear friend Gene Cernan said: May you 
always have fair winds and following seas. You shot for your Moon. You 
are still among the stars.
  God bless Ralph Hall.

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