[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 211 (Tuesday, December 7, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H6919]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             HONORING THE LIFE AND SERVICE OF DICK SCHIMMEL

  (Ms. WILD asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. WILD. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor a local hero from my 
district in the Greater Lehigh Valley who served at Pearl Harbor when 
it was attacked 80 years ago today.
  Dick Schimmel was 19 when, on the morning of December 7, 1941, he was 
roused from sleep by fellow servicemembers with the sound of explosions 
striking the American Naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
  Mr. Schimmel is a lifelong resident of Allentown, and a consummate 
American hero who joined the Army in August of 1940, serving as a radar 
specialist as part of the 580th Signal Aircraft Warning Company, before 
returning to Pennsylvania, where he sold appliances for Sears for 34 
years.
  Today is a solemn day as we reflect on the legacy of a day that 
President Roosevelt wisely said would ``live in infamy.'' We lost 2,335 
servicemembers that day and an additional 68 civilians, not to mention 
countless more with injuries, both visible and invisible.
  As the daughter of an Air Force veteran, I want to thank Mr. Schimmel 
for his heroism in Pearl Harbor 80 years ago.

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