[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 40 (Friday, February 28, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E236]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 TRIBUTE TO LIEUTENANT SAMUEL J. HARRIS

                                  _____
                                 

                             HON. DON BACON

                              of nebraska

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, February 28, 2020

  Mr. BACON. Madam Speaker, I rise today in honor of the memory of 
Lieutenant Samuel J. Harris, who was born Christmas Eve, 1896 in 
Shippensburg, Pennsylvania to a veteran of the US Civil War. When 
Samuel J. Harris was first called away to service, he was enrolled at 
Dickenson College.
  In 1916, he served as a member of the Pennsylvania National Guard on 
the U.S. Army's Pancho Villa Expedition in Mexico. Shortly after Harris 
returned home in 1917, the United States entered the First World War. 
Harris then enlisted as a private, this time in the 112th Infantry 
Regiment. Already a sergeant during training, Harris was selected for 
Officer Candidate School and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in 
the U.S. Army, his unit becoming part of the 28th Infantry Division.
  Serving in France, the regiment saw combat during the crucial Second 
Battle of the Marine and fought with great distinction throughout the 
war. Unlike his fellow veterans who returned to civilian life after the 
end of the first World War, Harris returned to Europe.
  In 1918 the new Lithuanian Republic had to defend itself against a 
collection of the czarist, Bolshevik, German and Polish forces all 
trying to suppress the new nation. The many Lithuanian-American 
organizations of the era began to raise funds to send recently returned 
veterans to defend the newly liberated nation. Some 10,000 U.S. 
veterans eventually went to aid their ancestral homeland.
  Despite not being of Lithuanian ancestry, but perhaps inspired by 
President Wilson's bold view of freedom and self-determination for the 
nations, Harris again volunteered. In 1919 as part of the Lithuanian 
American Brigade, First Lieutenant Samuel J. Harris left home for the 
final time to assist Lithuania to defend her newly declared 
independence.
  The first officer of his unit to arrive in Lithuania, Harris was 
active by the late autumn of 1919 and had led the attack against the 
Bermanite's Iron Division during its retreat from the Baltic Republics. 
His death occurred on February 24, 1920 during a Communist-instigated 
mutiny of young officers in Kaunas. The only member of his Brigade to 
lose his life in the attack, Lieutenant Harris was initially laid to 
rest in the nearby Kaunas Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery during a 
funeral with full Lithuanian military honors.
  He was posthumously awarded the Cross of Vytis, the Lithuanian 
nation's highest decoration for bravery.
  In 1923, a street in the Aleksotas District of Kaunas was named after 
Lieutenant Harris. The street name was changed in 1946 by Soviet 
authorities but was reinstated in 1993. Lieutenant Harris's body was 
later transported to the United States and reburied at Arlington 
National Cemetery.
  The verse on the marble monument over his grave bears a Vytis over 
the inscription: ``Erected by the Lithuanians and sons and daughters of 
Lithuanians in America and dedicated in loving memory of Lieutenant 
Samuel J. Harris who died fighting for the freedom of Lithuania.''
  Let us never forget individuals like Lieutenant Harris who have made 
the ultimate sacrifice so that the light of liberty throughout the 
world continues to shine brightly.

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