[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 37 (Tuesday, February 25, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E202-E203]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              HONORING FRANK PAREDES ON HIS 100TH BIRTHDAY

                                  _____
                                 

                             HON. JIM COSTA

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 25, 2020

  Mr. COSTA. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Frank Paredes on his 
100th birthday. Mr. Paredes is an upstanding World War II veteran and 
Pearl Harbor Survivor who I am proud to represent in Washington.
  Mr. Paredes was born on February 15, 1920 in Douglas, Arizona and 
enlisted in the Army

[[Page E203]]

on May 5, 1941. After basic training, he was sent to Pearl Harbor, 
where he was on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941. Mr. Paredes 
was heading to mass when the attack began and ran to the first anti-
aircraft gun he could find and manned it until the attack was over, 
managing to shoot down at least one plane.
  Mr. Paredes was then sent to Australia where he volunteered to be the 
nose gunner on a B25 that was shot down at sea near Port Moresby. Once 
rescued, he was sent to Cairns, Australia and later to Owens Stanley 
Range, New Guinea, where he participated in the Kokoda Track Campaign 
and Battle of Buna-Gona with the 7th Division, 32 Infantry. Later, Mr. 
Paredes joined the 2nd Engineer Special Brigade from September to 
October 1943, where he was wounded transporting troops to and from 
Scarlett Beach.
  After being attached to the Navy and stationed near Vella Lavella 
Island in 1943, Mr. Paredes participated in the Battle of Tarawa, and 
given a cyanide pill to be taken if captured. He was later sent to his 
final combat station in the Philippines and discharged in September 
1945.
  In 1959, Mr. Paredes married his wife Artemisa and had four kids, 
eventually settling down in Atwater in the 1970s, working for many 
years as a bricklayer. Though his wife passed away in 2007, Mr. Paredes 
remains proud of the family he started with her and now has many 
grandchildren, great, and great-great grandchildren.
  Since retiring from the bricklayers' union in the 1980s, Mr. Paredes 
has remained civically engaged. He is a member of Merced Elks Lodge No. 
1240 and a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, where he 
still serves as the bugler in the honor guard.
  Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in honoring the 
exceptional life of Frank Paredes on his 100th birthday. I wish him and 
his family the best as they celebrate 100 years of a gentleman that has 
made a difference and truly exemplifies the values of duty, honor, and 
country.

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