[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 173 (Thursday, November 21, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6713-S6714]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                 Tribute to Fred Austin and John Shank

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, it is Thursday afternoon; and, well, I 
don't know if our new pages know the significance of Thursday 
afternoon, but it is usually the time I come down and talk about our 
Alaskan of the Week. Hopefully, everybody can see that. It is kind of a 
special poster board today because it has the Capitol Christmas tree on 
it. I want to talk about that Capitol Christmas tree.
  The Alaskan of the Week is--for the reporters who are still around 
here on Thursday afternoon and the American people, they all view this 
as their favorite speech of the week. I am just saying. Not bragging. 
It is true, because we talk about someone really special in Alaska. It 
could be someone national, a great hero; it could be someone who did 
something great for their local community. Then we talk a little bit 
about what is going on in Alaska. Most of the country is intrigued by 
our great State--little snapshot of what is happening.
  Let me do that right now.
  Winter is not coming; winter is here. In fact, winter came before 
Halloween. We had a lot of snow in Anchorage before Halloween. Now we 
are getting a ton of snow. It is cold. There is a lot of snow. The 
holiday spirit is upon us. We love that. The northern lights are out. 
It is literally a winter wonderland.
  If you want to come up to Alaska--people in the Gallery--come on up. 
You will have the best visit of your life. Summer, winter, fall--it 
doesn't matter. By the way, in Utqiagvik, AK--that is our northernmost 
community referred to previously as Barrow, AK--the sun went down 
November 19, and it is not coming up until January 23 of 2025. It is 
kind of dark in Utqiagvik right now. They are not going to have a 
sunrise until late January. We love them up there. They are tough, 
great Americans, patriotic Americans.
  Everyone in my State is already enjoying winter. So if you can't come 
up to Alaska to enjoy winter this winter, we are going to bring a 
little bit of Alaska here to DC. That is right. The Capitol Christmas 
tree, which will be lit up in front of the Capitol building for the 
month of December, is coming all the way from the Tongass National 
Forest. The Presiding Officer cares a lot about the Tongass, we know 
that. It is just outside of Wrangell, AK. That is a journey of almost 
5,000 miles. And this is no living-room-size Christmas tree, folks. It 
is an 85-foot Sitka spruce. That is a big tree. You are going to see it 
out in front of the Capitol here very soon.
  I am sure everybody listening--and we know there are millions of 
people listening to this Alaskan of the Week speech--millions--they 
have a lot of questions.
  Wait. How do you transport a tree that size almost 5,000 miles across 
America?
  There are a lot of moving parts, including seven different vehicles 
and multiple-force servicemembers on tree-watering duty. You don't want 
your tree to dry out when you drive it across the country. And, of 
course, the intrepid truckers--truck drivers--who have taken up this 
charge to successfully and safely deliver Alaska's Christmas tree to 
America's Mall, to the Capitol.
  These Alaskans, Fred Austin and John Shank--longtime Alaska truck 
drivers, both Teamsters--are the men responsible for driving for 3 
weeks to deliver this tree to Washington, DC. And they, Fred and John, 
are our Alaskans of the Week.
  By the way, I love the Teamsters. I am a big fan of the Teamsters. 
During the pandemic, I went out in our backyard in Anchorage and gave a 
speech making all the Teamsters our Alaskans of the Week because they 
were keeping our economy open when, essentially, the rest of the 
country, the rest of Alaska, was shut down.
  So here is to the Teamsters.
  Here is to Fred and John.
  Let me give you a little background on this tree that Fred and John 
shared with me and my team recently. This gigantic tree was cut down 
outside of Wrangell, AK, as I mentioned, in late October. It was 
shipped from southeast Alaska--that is where Wrangell is--to Seattle, 
the Presiding Officer's hometown, on November 3. It was escorted by 
Forest Service members who are caring for the tree. Like I said, 
watering it, keeping it fresh the whole trip.
  When we checked in on Fred--and they are here now or are going to be 
here tomorrow morning. We checked in on them. They were just about to 
stop in Omaha, NE. By the time they conclude their journey, which will 
be tomorrow, they will have stopped in 12 States, 17 towns across 
America. And if you were lucky enough to be one of those Americans to 
live within driving distance of any of their stops, these guys would 
have been hard to miss.
  Thousands of Americans have come out to see this tree going across 
the

[[Page S6714]]

country. The upper half of this tree is already covered in Christmas 
lights and is visible through Plexiglass in the 85-foot custom-built 
trailer which serves as a gigantic autograph book that has collected 
thousands of signatures across the country from Americans and Christmas 
enthusiasts all across our great Nation.
  Let's talk about these two great Alaskans, our Alaskans of the Week.
  Fred first. Transporting a tree of this size that many miles 
requires, like I said, a crack team, which is why Fred and John were 
chosen. Two Teamsters--get this--with a combined trucking experience of 
over 130 years. Do the math. These guys know how to drive trucks. Fred 
has been trucking for 71 years. He is only 89 years old right now, born 
in 1935. A good year for wine, he says. Fred started trucking at the 
age of 18. He is literally probably the most experienced truck driver 
in America driving that tree.
  Like so many Alaskans, Fred is a veteran. By the way, Alaska has more 
veterans per capita than any State in the country. We are very proud of 
that, our patriotic heritage in Alaska. And I would venture to guess 
that there are few Navy veterans still around today who were part of 
the U.S. Navy blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a big point in 
American history. Guess what? Fred was. He served on the USS Mullinnix 
and was in the Navy 6 years. He was defending democracy then and 
spreading Christmas cheer now.
  Fred literally has done it all. Fred came to Alaska with his family 
in the mid-sixties and--no kidding--settled in North Pole, AK, a very 
fitting hometown for what would be his task today, delivering America's 
Christmas tree.
  Some of you ``Alaskan of the Week'' fans might remember the Alaskan 
of the Week about a year ago, last December, when I spoke about the 
North Pole, Alaska's Miller family, and their Santa Claus house.
  So, again, Americans, you want to come up and see a part of our great 
State, come to North Pole, AK, in the interior. The Santa Claus House 
is still going strong. If you write a letter addressed to Santa in the 
North Pole, your letter will end up at the Santa Claus House in Fred's 
hometown. When you get a reply, it is postmarked North Pole, AK--no 
kidding.
  So why did Fred decide to head north to the great State of Alaska? He 
said:

       It's in our blood to go find the frontier. That's been the 
     history of the world. It was time [for me] to go north.

  Now he is making this almost 5,000-mile trip to bring the Last 
Frontier to Washington, DC.
  Driving down south is an experience for Fred, much different than 
driving in the Last Frontier. Fred says that there are ``lots of 
highways and traffic. At home in Alaska, if you want to beat rush hour, 
you just have one more cup of coffee.'' There are not a lot of traffic 
jams in our State. Down here, it is a lot more coffee, pots of coffee.
  This is his first year transporting the Christmas tree, and he said 
that the best part has been watching the reaction of people seeing the 
tree on the road or at one of the town stops.
  Like I said, there have been thousands of people watching this 
incredible Alaskan tree going across the country.
  Fred said:

       People come out to watch the truck [and tree] go by. They 
     wave at us to honk our horn.

  We are loving it. And the tree, of course, at 85 feet, is hard to 
miss for ``prepping the country for the holiday spirit.''
  Accompanying Fred is John Shank, also an Alaskan and a Capitol 
Christmas tree delivery veteran. By the way, he is probably the only 
veteran. And I am not talking about military veteran; I am talking 
about, he has delivered the Christmas tree before, driving a truck. 
This is John's second time delivering Alaska's Christmas tree for the 
country. So go figure on that one--he is probably the only guy in the 
history of the country who has done this twice. He did it in 2015, 
which, by the way, was the only other time an Alaskan Christmas tree 
has made it for the Capitol Christmas tree since the tree-lighting 
ceremony officially began in 1964.
  But this drive is nothing compared to the 6 million miles John has 
banked during his nearly 50-year trucking career. Again, these guys, 
these Teamsters, these great Teamsters are some of the best truck 
drivers in the country.
  I said 6 million miles. For reference, there are only 17,600 miles of 
public roads in Alaska. During his career, John has effectively driven 
one of Alaska's public roads more than 340 times. Go figure that one 
out.
  Originally from Michigan but raised by his family in Fairbanks, 
John's regular route as a trucker for Lynden, which is a great Alaskan 
transportation company--the route he has usually done is from Fairbanks 
to the oilfields up in Prudhoe Bay.
  By the way, those of you who watched the different Alaska reality 
shows, those are the ice road truckers--great show. Tough duty, by the 
way, driving a truck from Fairbanks up to the North Slope, hundreds of 
miles in the winter, on ice.
  John has done this so well that he was nominated for the American 
Trucking Association Driver of the Year--not Alaskan Driver of the 
Year, American Driver of the Year--both in 2014 and in 2017.
  John came to Alaska in 1975 to transport food for dog mushing 
veterans but also likes to say that he came up to Alaska ``for the 
adventure. And I've been here ever since.'' It is such a great State.
  He said the highlight of his trip so far across the country was their 
stop in Indiana, where he reunited with almost 30 members of his 
extended family in the Hoosier State who had been tracking the tree 
and, of course, their fellow family member John on his trip all the way 
to Washington, DC.
  The tree is a family event all around. During the scheduled stops 
along the drive, families throughout America--thousands of them--have 
come to admire the tree and get excited about Christmas. ``Seeing 
family, seeing kids looking at the tree with rosy cheeks,'' John said, 
reminds us it is Christmastime.
  So there you have it--two jolly Alaskan men--one literally from North 
Pole, AK--spreading special Alaskan Christmas cheer with this beautiful 
tree right here across America as they transport America's Christmas 
tree, Alaska's Christmas tree, to Washington, DC. All they are missing 
are some reindeer. See them right here? You know, in Alaska, we get a 
lot of reindeer. I am sure my State would happily loan a few reindeer 
down here to DC. You can come see them yourself, by the way, up in our 
State. One of them, Star, a reindeer, actually lives in downtown 
Anchorage and is always welcoming to visitors.
  But in all seriousness, the tree, as I mentioned, will be arriving 
here in Washington, DC, tomorrow. Alaskans from across the State have 
been working for months on the over 5,000 decorations that will go on 
this tree. It is going to be beautiful. It is going to reach for the 
heavens, light up the night sky here in DC. An Alaskan tree in our 
Nation's Capital will truly mark the beginning of a joyful holiday 
season for all of us.
  So thank you, Fred and John, for taking this enormous trek to bring 
the Capitol Christmas tree and a whole truckload of Christmas spirit 
across America to DC.
  Thanks to all the Alaskans who helped make this happen.
  Thanks to the Teamsters who keep our State and country's economy 
rolling strong.
  Fred and John, Merry Christmas and congratulations on one of the 
highest honors anyone in America can achieve--our Alaskan of the Week. 
Great job, gentlemen. We will see you tomorrow out there with your 
Christmas tree.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.

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