[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 106 (Tuesday, June 25, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E663]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     CONGRATULATING ROMEO LUCCHESI

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 25, 2024

  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend Romeo Lucchesi, the 
Visual Information Specialist at the Lt. Col. Luke Weathers Jr. VA 
Medical Center in Memphis, for his successes in video marketing and 
film-making. Earlier this year, he won a Gold Aster Award for 
excellence in healthcare advertising for his special video production 
``A Tribute to Lt. Col. Luke Weathers Jr.'' Earlier this year, he also 
won an Emmy Award for his documentary video essay ``The Green Beret Who 
Fought Muhammad Ali.'' Lt. Col. Luke Weathers, Jr. was a Tuskegee 
Airman from Memphis. During World War II, Weathers was credited with 
shooting down German planes while protecting U.S. Army Air Corps 
bombers. As a result of his stellar flying record, he earned an Air 
Medal with 7 Clusters, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the American 
Theater Ribbon Victory Medal WWII. After the War, he worked for the 
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and eventually returned to 
Memphis, where he continued to support African Americans in the 
military, aviation, and elsewhere. Lt. Col. Weathers's inspirational 
story moved me to introduce legislation to rename the Memphis VA after 
him. Lucchesi produced a memorial video of Lt. Col. Weathers for a 
renaming ceremony of the Memphis VA Medical Center in July 2023. ``The 
Green Beret Who Fought Muhammad Ali'' tells the story of Memphis native 
Henry Hooper, a Booker T. Washington High school graduate who enlisted 
in the Marines and later joined the U.S. Army's Special Forces Green 
Berets. As a Green Beret, he was invited to the U.S. Olympic Boxing 
Trials in 1960 held at San Francisco's Cow Palace, where he sparred 
with Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali, who won the Gold Medal 
in the light heavyweight division in the Rome Olympics later that year. 
Hooper describes the fight in the film, explaining that for a split 
second, he took his eyes off Ali, and got knocked down. Ali won the 
match on a technical knock out. Hooper spent 11 years on active duty, 
some of it in Vietnam, while Ali resisted the draft and was charged 
with draft evasion in a case later overturned by the U.S. Supreme 
Court. Hooper later became a Secret Service agent and was assigned 
White House duty during the Carter Administration. At a state dinner to 
which Muhammad Ali had been invited, Ali approached Hooper saying he 
was sure they'd met before. Hooper said they'd met at the Cow Palace 
and they embraced. Hooper's colleagues asked about the encounter 
because they had never heard the story of the boxing match. As Hooper 
explains it, he didn't talk about it: ``I lost. I got beat . . . but he 
(Ali) remembered.'' Hooper, now a retired insurance agent in Memphis, 
is finally getting the adulation as a veteran that he deserves, and it 
is thanks to Mr. Lucchesi's talented filmmaking. The six-minute 
documentary can be viewed on the Medical Center's Facebook page. Romeo 
Lucchesi's talent is apparent, and I am pleased that he is working at 
the Lt. Col. Luke Weathers Jr. VA Medical Center, helping to tell the 
stories and honor those who have sacrificed to protect our freedoms. I 
congratulate him on his successes and look forward to seeing what else 
he has in store for us.

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