[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 139 (Wednesday, August 4, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5823-S5824]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO ARNOLD POSTOVIT

  Mr. CRAMER. Mr. President, it is a great honor for me to recognize a 
North Dakota hero who will celebrate his 100th birthday on August 20. 
Arnold Postovit of Tioga is one of our State's most treasured residents 
who has experienced many great moments in our State's and Nation's 
history.
  Raised during the Great Depression on a farm near the town of Plaza, 
Arnold remembers days where the grasshoppers were so thick they blocked 
the sun. In an oral interview in 1999, this World War II veteran shared 
details about his military service.
  Arnold graduated from Plaza High School and spent a semester at the 
University of North Dakota before deciding he wanted to be a pilot. 
This led him and a few friends to the Army recruiting center in 
Bismarck in the summer of 1940. With no openings in Army Air Corps 
units, he enlisted in the infantry and never left the 7th Infantry, 3rd 
Division.
  He trained with a mortar unit in Washington State, going on manuevers 
and practicing boat landings on Puget Sound. In January 1941, he was 
transferred to Fort Lewis and was on leave in Tacoma on December 7, 
when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. In early 1942, he trained near 
San Diego for several months, which included desert maneuvers. 
Traveling by train to Virginia, it was in November 1942 when his 
battalion boarded the USS Thomas Jefferson and landed in North Africa 3 
weeks later. There, he was was among those who conducted night patrols 
around Casablanca. Following more training, Arnold and his division 
sailed the Mediterranean Sea toward Tunis to prepare for the invasion 
of Sicily in July 1943. His landing craft infantry came under heavy 
German machinegun fire as they came ashore. He also saw action in 
Palermo and Messina, Italy, where he remembers heavy fighting and the 
cold weather at Christmastime.
  ``We were young and tough,'' Arnold recalled in 1999. ``There was a 
lot of rain and we got sick from being wet and from the dysentery that 
would break out.''
  His life would change after his unit landed behind German lines in 
Anzio, Italy, in January 1944. Hitler sent some of his best battle-
hardened troops to push back this surprise attack by the Allied Forces. 
On February 6, German troops captured Arnold and a dozen other 
soldiers. He was transferred to a nearby POW camp that held many other 
American and British soldiers.
  A few weeks later, trucks took him and other POWs on a 4-day trip to 
northern Germany to the Stalag 2B camp. After a few months, he and 16 
other soldiers were taken by train to a working farm, where he did 
general farm work for nearly a year. In the spring of 1945, as Soviet 
troops invaded Germany from the east, Arnold and a thousand other 
soldiers were marched west across Germany. They came close to the North 
Sea and kept warm in nearby barns during the cold nights. After 
marching 600 miles, Arnold and some other soldiers saw an opportunity 
to escape to a nearby small town near the Elbe River on April 12. They 
hid in abandoned buildings and the next morning flagged down a small 
American plane that was flying over. They were told to stay where they 
were because American troops would be marching through later that day. 
When they connected with the Americans, the first thing the soldiers 
did was throw those thin and sick prisoners of war cans of C-rations to 
eat. Eventually, they were flown to Le Harve, France, and went to 
nearby Camp Lucky Strike, where released prisoners of war were taken to 
regain their health. Arnold was among other North Dakota soldiers who 
then sailed with thousands of others to Newport News, VA, on a 
converted transport ship.
  Following his Army discharge, Arnold returned home to farm with his 
father, who by then lived near White Earth, ND. He planted the crops 
and

[[Page S5824]]

his father took care of the livestock. Married 6 years later, he and 
his wife Marjorie raised a family of five children. Although it was 
difficult to adjust after his wartime and POW experiences, Arnold made 
the best of his opportunities and cherished being an American. ``After 
you lose your freedom, then you understand what freedom means,'' he 
said. ``Americans are free, even if we sometimes think we aren't.''
  In May 2009, Arnold participated with other North Dakota World War II 
veterans in an Honor Flight that took them to the World War II Memorial 
and other sites in Washington, DC.
  Arnold Postovit is one of 60,000 North Dakotans who served in the 
U.S. Armed Forces during World War II. Of those, nearly 2,000 gave 
their lives for our freedom in this largest and deadliest conflict in 
world history. With only some 500 World War II veterans still alive 
today in North Dakota, the heroism of every single one of them is 
appreciated more than ever.
  Throughout his life, Arnold has embodied the best of the Greatest 
Generation. He has lived a meaningful life, sharing his story as a 
World War II soldier so the rest of us can better understand and 
appreciate the selfless service and sacrifice each and every veteran 
has made. On behalf of all North Dakotans, I wish Arnold Postovit a 
very happy 100th birthday on August 20 and many more years of health 
and vitality. As he celebrates with his family and many friends in 
Tioga on August 22, I honor him as one of North Dakota's most exemplary 
citizens.

                          ____________________