[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 178 (Thursday, November 7, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6456-S6457]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Veterans Day

  Mr. President, Veterans Day is coming up on Monday, and our Nation 
will pause to remember all those who have served in our military. I 
will be calling my dad, who will be 100 in December--a World War II vet 
who flew Hellcats in the Pacific--to thank him again for his service.
  As a U.S. Senator, I have had the privilege of meeting many 
veterans--men and women who decided they were willing to lay down their 
lives if necessary to ensure that their families, communities, and 
fellow countrymen could enjoy the blessings of freedom. Members of the 
military give up a lot for us. They forgo physical comforts and embrace 
sacrifice.
  They accept long deployments and days of duty that start before dawn 
or stretch long into the night. They accept the fact that they will 
miss Thanksgivings and birthdays and Christmases, first steps and first 
days of kindergarten, date nights and little league games, and family 
reunions. They shoulder the burden of facing evil head-on so that the 
rest of us will never have to. And many of them bear the scars--the 
physical wounds and the invisible wounds--that war can also leave.
  We enjoy tremendous blessings, and we are used to them. We are used 
to waking up in safety. We are used to going about our days in safety. 
We are used to voting in safety, attending church in safety, reading 
the newspaper in safety, expressing political

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opinions in safety. It can be too easy to forget that we enjoy these 
tremendous blessings because men and women have been willing to go out 
and put their lives on the line for them.
  Veterans Day is a chance to remind ourselves--to remember that we 
live in peace and freedom every day because men and women were willing 
to answer the call to serve our country. We owe our veterans a debt we 
can never repay. Yet we can make sure that we never forget what they 
have done for us, and we can resolve to lead the kinds of lives that 
make us worthy of their sacrifice.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.