[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 194 (Thursday, November 4, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H6187-H6188]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              HONORING JOHN ONDRASIK OF FIVE FOR FIGHTING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize an individual 
I recently had the pleasure of having a conversation with, a singer-
songwriter who, more importantly, is a tremendous supporter of our 
troops, John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting.
  John started Five for Fighting in 1995, and shortly thereafter rose 
to

[[Page H6188]]

fame after releasing the Grammy-nominated ballad ``Superman''. While 
written and released well before 9/11, ``Superman'' became something of 
an anthem during the tough days following 9/11.
  As our Nation came together as one, ``Superman'' struck a chord with 
the survivors and families of those we lost on that terrible day, as 
well as our troops serving around the world. And its lyrics resonated 
with people and comforted those who needed it the most.
  Mr. Speaker, since then, John has been deeply involved with our 
troops. He has performed at dozens of USO shows for our servicemembers 
overseas and also works with several veteran-oriented charities. John 
has spent the past two decades writing deeply personal songs that 
include social messages that make an emotional connection and invoke 
the human spirit.
  Some of these songs are included on the ``CD for the Troops'' project 
which is a collection of 13 songs from top artists, including John's, 
that was compiled specially for U.S. military members.
  Since 2007, John has distributed over 1 million copies of ``CD for 
the Troops'' to servicemembers and their families around the world as a 
way of thanking them for the sacrifices that they have made and 
continue to make.
  John's support of the U.S. Armed Forces is unwavering and, like many 
of us, when he saw the devastating images coming out of Afghanistan 
during the onset of the U.S. withdrawal in August, he was horrified. 
Terrified mothers were throwing their babies over barbed wire fences 
and men were clinging on to military aircraft as they lifted off, all 
in an attempt to flee the Taliban. How could this be happening?
  John then did what many musicians in pain do. He sat at his piano and 
he wrote a song. He penned ``Blood on My Hands'' which is a song that 
mourns the Americans who died and the ones who were left behind in 
Afghanistan due to the failures of the administration. ``Blood on My 
Hands'' encapsulates the emotions that I and many Americans felt 
following the terrorist attacks in Kabul that killed 13 U.S. 
servicemembers and dozens of Afghani allies. Similar to ``Superman's'' 
effect on people post-9/11, ``Blood on My Hands'' went viral and 
quickly became an anthem for veterans and servicemembers in the wake of 
the deadly attacks in Kabul.
  Mr. Speaker, many people cautioned John not to release the song. 
Still, he kept coming back to the idea that this song sent an important 
moral message about the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. John 
says of ``Blood on My Hands'': ``It's not a political song. It is a 
moral message about promises that we made to people there, that we 
promised to protect, that we left there. We broke our promise. It's 
about accountability and admitting when you make mistakes because 
that's how you can rectify them and learn not to do them again.''
  Mr. Speaker, I could not agree more with this sentiment. What 
happened to no person left behind? We put American citizens, SIV 
holders, and Afghan allies' lives at risk. The United States of America 
and this administration broke that promise to these people. The 
administration's decisions surrounding the withdrawal will go down, I 
believe, as one of the worst foreign policy decisions in American 
history. As a result, American lives were needlessly lost.

  It is time our leaders reflect on the mistakes that were made and 
take accountability for failures so that we can do better for the 
American people and our allies in the future.
  Mr. Speaker, John's work is evidence of the power that music holds. 
It brings people from different corners of the world together. It 
transcends time, and I am confident that John's song, ``Blood on My 
Hands'', will do just that.
  We will never forget 9/11 and, in the same vein, we can never forget 
the heroes who fought in the subsequent 20-year war in Afghanistan. 
Thanks to brave storytellers like John Ondrasik, we won't forget these 
heroes.
  Mr. Speaker, John is a true patriot, and I applaud and admire his 
courage to stand up for what he believes in, and even more so, demand 
accountability from our Nation's leaders.

                          ____________________