[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 184 (Tuesday, November 7, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H5541-H5542]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   MOURNING THE LOSS OF PAUL BAFFICO

  (Mr. SCHNEIDER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SCHNEIDER. Madam Speaker, as Veterans Day approaches, I rise 
today to mourn the loss of Paul Baffico, a dear friend and pillar of 
our local veterans community.
  We met 30 years ago while working together at Sears. Over the years, 
I learned the full breadth of his story and the depth of his character. 
Paul served in Vietnam in the 101st Airborne Division, participating in 
206 combat assaults.
  Like so many of his era, Paul was not welcomed home the way he 
deserved. It was an experience that informed his career and his 
volunteering throughout his life.
  Paul committed his life to serving our Nation's veterans. For more 
than 15 years, Paul volunteered as a docent at the Vietnam Veterans 
Memorial in Washington, D.C.
  In 2012, he founded the Lake County Veterans and Family Services 
Foundation, engaging with and advocating on

[[Page H5542]]

behalf of thousands of veterans and families.
  Paul was a big man and leaves an even bigger legacy, and his memory 
will forever be a blessing.
  Madam Speaker, I include in the Record an oral history Paul shared 
with the Pritzker Military Museum & Library in 2013.

       [From Pritzker Military Museum and Library, Nov. 17, 2023]

                     Paul Baffico, First Lieutenant

       Paul Baffico's story of service truly represents the 
     turmoil our nation faced in the early 1960s--a college 
     student in San Francisco who chose to enroll in the ROTC as 
     Americans were becoming more and more divided on the issue of 
     the Vietnam War, Baffico served with the famed 101st Airborne 
     Division in an area that saw heavy action, before returning 
     home to a community that either couldn't--or wouldn't 
     understand what the military's sacrifice had been about.
       Differing from some of the public universities at the time, 
     the school that Baffico attended--the University of San 
     Francisco--had a requirement that all students participate in 
     ROTC for their first two years with the option to continue on 
     voluntarily after that. Despite the more conservative nature 
     of the school, the university's proximity to landmarks of 60s 
     counter-culture--Haight-Ashbury, The University of California 
     at Berkeley, and San Francisco itself--made putting on a 
     uniform and going to class that much more intense in an 
     environment where heated debates about Vietnam were raging. 
     Watching as peers were pulled out of class and taken to the 
     draft board, however, and hoping to postpone being drafted 
     himself, Mr. Baffico chose to continue with ROTC after the 
     school's initial requirements had been met.
       After completing his undergraduate studies, Baffico was 
     trained as a Signal Officer at Ft. Gordon, Georgia before 
     moving on to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, and finally landing at Ft. 
     Hood, Texas. From there, he deployed to Vietnam and joined up 
     with the 101st Airborne Division as a Signal Platoon Leader 
     at Camp Eagle, in the hotly contested DMZ. From the time he 
     landed in Vietnam--coming into Tan Son Nhut and making the 
     30-minute drive by jeep to Camp Eagle--Baffico was enveloped 
     by the dangers of the conflict that would be ever-present in 
     his 206 combat assaults.
       One day, in particular, stands out to Baffico and 
     represents the intensity he experienced:
       As dawn broke on the morning of May 6th [1970] I was called 
     to Division Tactical Operations Center (the Situation Bunker) 
     and told that Firebase Henderson was under heavy attack and 
     partially overrun. It was a sapper attack and the ammo dump 
     was on fire and cooking off. My three men had been hit: two 
     killed and one MEDEVAC'd out. The battle was at full peak and 
     the only working communications for the entire firebase was 
     the Pathfinder radio (LZ air traffic control). I was ordered 
     to get a new team and equipment ready and get them installed 
     at Henderson within 45 minutes regardless of the situation. I 
     was not to leave the firebase until my men were in place and 
     the equipment was back on air.
       That during his interview Baffico chooses to focus on 
     issues of leadership surrounding this moment, and what it 
     means to support the troops in such a situation, is perhaps 
     telling of how hard it is to revisit certain moments in the 
     past. Mr. Baffico does suggest it took him many years to be 
     able to even write about that day. The understanding of 
     leadership that Baffico took away with him that day continued 
     to shape him as he came home to a community protesting the 
     war in Vietnam; as he married and raised a family, and as he 
     began a long career with Sears Roebuck & Co.--a company that 
     understood his service and supported him.
       Baffico, who lives in Lake Bluff, Illinois and is one of 
     the founders of the Lake County Veterans and Family Service 
     Foundation, takes time each month to volunteer at The Vietnam 
     Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., where he talks with 
     visitors about the war-time sacrifices he witnessed and what 
     it actually means to be of service to your country.

                          ____________________