[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 76 (Friday, May 6, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E462-E463]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




DENOUNCING TREATMENT OF AMERICAN HERO AND VETERAN, AIRMAN BRIAN KOLFAGE

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                           HON. PAUL A. GOSAR

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, May 6, 2022

  Mr. GOSAR. Madam Speaker, I rise today to expose the shameful 
treatment of Iraq war veteran Brian Kolfage by the U.S. Government.
  Airman Kolfage lost three limbs defending our country in the Iraq 
war. While serving a second tour of duty in Iraq in 2004, a rocket 
shell exploded 25 feet from him. Due to his tenacity and determination, 
he shocked his doctors and left Walter Reed after only 11 months. He 
earned a Purple Heart and is the most wounded airman ever to have 
survived a war in the history of our country.
  Brian Kolfage's service to country did not end with his military 
valor. Incredibly, he ran a

[[Page E463]]

private organization that helped build 3 miles of border wall along the 
Rio Grande river, a place where construction is difficult due to the 
great potential for erosion.
  So how do our corrupt elites treat this hero? They respond like they 
did to the many peaceful protesters on January 6, to the pro-life 
protesters facing over 10 years for trying to save the unborn, or to 
anyone who disagrees with their globalist, America-last agenda. They 
persecute them; they make their lives a living hell; they ruin them.
  As our ruling elites were not happy that the illegal hordes could not 
continue to stream across the border, they activated their deep-state 
machinery and sent their secret police to arrest Airman Kolfage. 
Fifteen Federal law enforcement goons dragged him out of his house 
without a wheelchair, subjecting him to utter humiliation and pain in 
front of his family. No thought whatsoever was given to his disabled 
status. And in prison, the VA refused him pain medications, without 
which he suffers unbearable pain.
  Mr. Kolfage had worked tirelessly, 12 hours a day, for several years 
to get this 3-mile section of wall built. He ran and operated the 
organization that got it done. For taking a salary, the Federal 
Government arrested him, saying he had no right to get paid anything 
because his website said any money raised would go to build the wall. 
In my view, he was part of getting the wall built. There was nothing 
wrong with him getting a salary and saying the money would be used to 
build the wall. Without him, it would not have been complete, and no 
real American would object to a man getting paid to devote himself to a 
selfless project like this one and succeeding.
  Airman Kolfage was just intimidated into taking a plea deal by our 
third-world, kangaroo-court judicial system. This veteran and activist 
should be celebrated as a hero in so many ways. Instead, he will rot in 
a Federal prison. A greater injustice is hard to imagine. To his wife, 
Ashley, and two children, my heart goes out to them. I am praying for 
them all. Please know that I will continue to fight against the 
injustice done to her husband.

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