[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 94 (Wednesday, June 5, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3238-S3240]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  The senior assistant bill clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination 
     of Edward F. Crawford, of Ohio, to be Ambassador 
     Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of 
     America to Ireland.
         Mitch McConnell, David Perdue, John Thune, Roy Blunt, 
           Thom Tillis, Roger F. Wicker, Marco Rubio, James E. 
           Risch, Bill Cassidy, Mike Rounds, John Cornyn, Mike 
           Crapo, Johnny Isakson, John Boozman, Kevin Cramer, Mike 
           Braun, Pat Roberts.

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions be waived.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.


                       75th Anniversary of D-day

  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I want to talk a little bit about what we 
will be talking about around the country and around the world tomorrow. 
Tomorrow is the 75th anniversary of D-Day. There aren't a lot of days 
known in history around the world by just one letter, but June 6, 1944, 
is known that way. It is the greatest amphibious battlefield landing 
ever and probably the single greatest military operation in history. It 
was done to liberate people in Europe from one of the most savage 
regimes that ever existed.
  At 15 minutes past midnight, 18,000 paratroopers began to step out of 
their planes high above Normandy, France, going in behind what would be 
the landing the next day. Below them, there were about 200,000 people 
streaming toward the Continent on almost 7,000 ships, with about 1 
million others to follow after that landing was made on D-Day.
  A journalist who wrote about the battle noted that by 4:30 that 
morning, the Stars and Stripes flew for the first time over a town 
liberated by Americans in France in World War II.
  So a lot happened from midnight to 4:30, but a lot more was going to 
happen that day. Americans led the operation, but there were also 
troops from Britain, from Poland, from Norway, from Canada, and even 
French troops returning to help free their own country were there. They 
were told that when you land in Normandy, you will have only one 
friend: God. I am sure there was lots of praying going on that day.

[[Page S3239]]

  It became known in literature and on film as ``The Longest Day,'' and 
it gave the Allies the threshold they needed to free the Continent from 
the crush of the Third Reich. There was clearly chaos--that many people 
doing that many things in that many different ways. There were 
missteps, and there was bad luck, but in the end, there was an 
unimaginable amount of courage and sacrifice and just simple providence 
in what happened that day.
  When one landing group was landed in the wrong place, a place they 
weren't supposed to land, the commanding general, Theodore Roosevelt, 
who was the son of the former President Theodore Roosevelt, told one of 
his officers just to keep on bringing the men ashore. He said: ``We are 
going to start the war from right here.'' It is not where they intended 
to be, but it is where they were, and in their view and General 
Roosevelt's view that day, where we are is where we are going to start; 
there is no going back now. They didn't go back.

  One of the men who joined the fight that day--and there were millions 
who would eventually--with hundreds of thousands that day was Ralph 
Goldsticker from the Marine Corps Reserve.
  He had signed up for the Army Aviation Cadet Corps right after Pearl 
Harbor. He said, when talking about this later, that his parents were 
scared silly when they found out he had signed up immediately to become 
a flyer in what would become World War II.
  He flew 35 missions as a bombardier flying in a B-17 Flying Fortress, 
including two missions on D-Day. His first mission that day was to help 
take out the big German guns that guarded the beach where British 
troops were landing. He remembers the skies being so thick with 
airplanes that he had to fly from southern England all the way back to 
Scotland just to get in line to head to France.
  Later that afternoon, he flew a second mission to attack German 
reinforcements who were headed to the beaches. Ralph was awarded the 
French Legion of Honor medal in recognition of his service.
  You know, he was just one of thousands of Missourians from the lowest 
private to General Omar Bradley, who was commanding the American troops 
who were part of that mission, and many of them would never return.
  We just had a series of votes a little earlier than we would normally 
have in the week because 17 or so of our colleagues are going to be 
part of the D-Day celebration on this 75th anniversary. I had an 
opportunity myself to be in Normandy a few years ago. We were in 
Normandy at the Normandy American Cemetery, where there were 7,000 
graves out in front of us.
  On what was a private trip, not a government trip, we were fortunate 
to have a good guide who understood the war and the cemetery. He took 
us through the cemetery, and then he took us over and sat us down on 
the stone wall with the English Channel to our backs and those 7,000 
graves out in front of us. As we sat there at that spot, he flipped 
open his computer and on his computer he had some video of General 
Eisenhower and Walter Cronkite sitting exactly on that same spot on 
June 6, 1964, the 20th anniversary of D-Day.
  General Eisenhower, of course, gave the orders in spite of weather 
and other things, hoping it would work out as it was supposed to. As 
for what happened on D-Day and what happened later, he said to Walter 
Cronkite something like this: You know, Walter, my son John graduated 
from West Point on D-Day. Many times over the last 20 years I thought 
about him and his wife and the family they have and the opportunities 
they have had, and I thought about these young men--Eisenhower said, 
looking at those graves--and I thought about these young men and what 
they didn't get to do because of what they were asked to do.
  That, by the way, was the same commanding general who had that famous 
note in his wallet that day, stating that he would take full 
responsibility for what happened if it didn't go well. That was the 
kind of leader he was.
  I mentioned that there were 18,000 paratroopers. He was told that 70 
percent of those paratroopers would not survive the day. There is a 
statue here in the Rotunda of this building that is based on a photo of 
Eisenhower the day before D-Day, surrounded by those young 
paratroopers. They were 18, 19, and 20, and maybe even a few younger 
than 18 surrounding him. They had been told that he wouldn't want to 
talk to them, but when he got there, it was obvious that he was there 
to see them. That statue in the Rotunda shows Eisenhower making a 
gesture. Nobody knew for years what that particular hand gesture was, 
but it turns out that he was talking to a young man from Idaho, and he 
was talking about fly fishing. So that gesture of Eisenhower in this 
building, if you are in this building looking at that statue, is 
Eisenhower the day before D-Day, talking to a young man about fly 
fishing. Again, he had been told that 70 percent of those paratroopers 
would not survive the day because of what he and others were asking 
them to do.
  The numbers weren't that bad, but they turned out to be plenty bad. 
The Germans had released water in an area behind Normandy in an 
unexpected way. So many of those paratroopers who expected to land on 
the ground instead went into flooded lands and drowned. Other things 
happened that couldn't have been planned for and weren't planned for, 
but they were there to do that job.
  The fighting that first day, D-Day, paved the way for more men to 
come ashore. It began the long push from France into Germany and, for 
them, into history. I think there will be slightly more than a dozen D-
Day survivors at that 75th anniversary. You don't have to do the math 
very long to know that if you were in the military on D-Day, you would 
be in your nineties today, and they are going to be there with our 
colleagues and others celebrating what they did and what they were 
willing to do.
  One observer wrote on D-Day: There never had been a dawn like this 
one--700 ships, 200,000 people ready to land and establish the 
beginning of the end of World War II. So on D-Day, we remember again 
the sacrifice of those thousands of soldiers, sailors, and airmen. We 
honor their courage and devotion to the cause of liberty. We serve them 
by continuing to remain strong and preparing to fight for freedom 
everywhere. That means doing all we can for the men and women who 
defend us today. It means we carry the legacy of the generations that 
fought 75 years ago on D-Day and every other war where Americans fought 
and died.
  They deserve our gratitude today and every day. We need to continue 
to understand the importance of our alliances and our willingness to 
stand for freedom. D-Day is a great day and this is a great, great week 
to be reminded of that.
  I yield back.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I appreciate the remembrances of D-Day from 
Senator Blunt, the distinguished senior Senator from Missouri.
  It is always memorable attending D-Day events. The first one I went 
to--and you just spoke of the distinguished Kansan, Dwight Eisenhower--
was with Robert Dole for the 40th anniversary. President Reagan asked 
the two of us to represent him in Italy when we first landed, while 
President Reagan went to Normandy. Subsequently, I went with a 
delegation with President Clinton and then with President George W. 
Bush, and, lastly, with President Obama. I found the experience 
overwhelming each time.
  Last year--it was actually on my birthday--Dick Shelby and I were 
there and laid a wreath in Normandy. Nobody can walk by there--first, 
seeing all the graves and realizing that they are only some of the 
remains--and then walking to the cliffs and looking down, and not 
wonder how anybody could have had the courage to face such withering 
fire. For some who survived, it seemed like the enemy was using a paint 
brush and just wiping people out. You would see them falling all 
around.
  A well-respected doctor from our home town in Montpelier had never 
talked about it. On the 50th anniversary we asked him if he would join 
us there. He is not a wealthy man. He treated a lot of the poor Italian 
immigrants for nothing. My mother was a first generation Italian 
American, and she always talked with him. She and my father and others 
raised money for him to go, and after that for the first time he could 
talk about it.

[[Page S3240]]

  He came back and talked about it. He was a medic and a little guy. He 
went off the boat with all of his gear and just sank. He would have 
drowned, but somebody pulled him up and brought him to the shore. He 
turned to say thank you, and the man who rescued him was shot dead.
  He refused to leave the beach. He just treated one person after 
another, and his story is not unusual. So many did that. So I thank my 
friend from Missouri for what he said.