[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 67 (Monday, April 25, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2115-S2116]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Remembering Lorenzo Cervantes

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, last week, America and Illinois lost a 
hero. Lorenzo Cervantes was his name. He had been a steelworker living 
in the small town of Sterling, IL, in the Rock River Valley. That is an 
hour or two west of Chicago.
  Mr. Cervantes was 98 years old. When he was a young man, he set out 
to save the world. He joined the U.S. Army in February of 1943, during 
World War II, before he had reached the age of 20. He was a member of 
an elite group. There was an American-Canadian commando unit known as 
the First Special Service Force, a top-secret band of brothers 
operating deep behind enemy lines.
  The Forcemen, as they were known, earned the nickname ``The Devil's 
Brigade'' from terrified Nazi soldiers and officers who said that they 
seemed to appear out of nowhere in the dead of night, like devils.
  That unit he served in suffered one of the highest casualty rates in 
the war. Listen to these figures. Of the 2,400 men who fought with the 
unit, 2,300 of them were either killed or wounded, but they never lost 
a mission--not one.
  The First Special Service Force existed for only 2 years, but the 
spirit of that force lives on in the Green Berets, Army Rangers, Navy 
SEALS, Marine Raiders, Canadian Special Operations Regiment, and, 
frankly, all of today's military Special Forces.
  For decades after World War II, the very existence of that unit 
remained top secret and classified. The Forcemen didn't tell anyone 
what they had done in the war, not even their families. Like Lorenzo 
Cervantes, they quietly returned home, married, raised families, and 
lived ordinary lives.
  In 2015, some 70 years after the end of World War II, they were 
finally honored for their service, and Congress awarded them the 
Congressional Gold Medal.
  I had the privilege of meeting two other Forcemen from Illinois at 
that Gold Medal ceremony. Casey Celske was one of them. He fought with 
the Devil's Brigade at the Battle of Anzio--one of the Allies' greatest 
surprise victories. He was among the first Allied soldiers to enter 
Rome and liberate it from the Nazis.
  Mr. Celske died 3 years ago, also age 98. After the war, he had 
returned to Illinois and married. He and his wife had 11 children--11.
  In 1995, 50 years after the war ended, Mr. Celske and one of his sons 
decided to go back to Europe to take a look and see the places where 
the First Special Service Force had fought and to visit the towns that 
the Force liberated.
  Near the Anzio beachhead, they spoke to an Italian man. When the man 
realized who they were, he dropped to his knees, broke out in tears, 
and thanked Casey Celske of Illinois.

[[Page S2116]]

  The Italian man said to his son: This is one of the soldiers who 
saved our village.
  Casey Celske turned to his son and said: All these years, I wondered 
what I was doing. Now I know.