[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 20514-20515]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



            U.S.S. ``WISCONSIN'' COMMEMORATIVE POSTAGE STAMP

  Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
Governmental Affairs Committee be discharged from further consideration 
of S. Con. Res. 60, and that the Senate then proceed to its immediate 
consideration.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The clerk will report the concurrent resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 60) expressing the 
     sense of Congress that a commemorative postage stamp should 
     be issued in honor of the U.S.S. Wisconsin and all those who 
     served aboard her.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
concurrent resolution.
  Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
concurrent resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the 
motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements 
relating to the resolution be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 60) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The concurrent resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                            S. Con. Res. 60

       Whereas the Iowa Class Battleship, the U.S.S. Wisconsin 
     (BB-64), is an honored warship in United States naval 
     history, with 6 battle stars and 5 citations and medals 
     during her 55 years of service;
       Whereas the U.S.S. Wisconsin was launched on December 7, 
     1943, by the Philadelphia

[[Page 20515]]

     Naval Shipyard; sponsored by Mrs. Walter S. Goodland, wife of 
     then-Governor Goodland of Wisconsin; and commissioned at 
     Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 16, 1944, with Captain 
     Earl E. Stone in command;
       Whereas her first action for Admiral William ``Bull'' 
     Halsey's Third Fleet was a strike by her task force against 
     the Japanese facilities in Manila, thereby supporting the 
     amphibious assault on the Island of Mindoro, which was a 
     vital maneuver in the defeat of the Japanese forces in the 
     Philippines;
       Whereas the U.S.S. Wisconsin joined the Fifth Fleet to 
     provide strategic cover for the assault on Iwo Jima by 
     striking the Tokyo area;
       Whereas the U.S.S. Wisconsin supplied crucial firepower for 
     the invasion of Okinawa;
       Whereas the U.S.S. Wisconsin served as a flagship for the 
     Seventh Fleet during the Korean conflict;
       Whereas the U.S.S. Wisconsin provided consistent naval 
     gunfire support during the Korean conflict to the First 
     Marine Division, the First Republic of Korea Corps, and 
     United Nations forces;
       Whereas the U.S.S. Wisconsin received 5 battle stars for 
     World War II and one for the Korean conflict;
       Whereas the U.S.S. Wisconsin returned to combat on January 
     17, 1991;
       Whereas the U.S.S. Wisconsin served as Tomahawk strike 
     warfare commander for the Persian Gulf, and directed the 
     sequence of Tomahawk launches that initiated Operation Desert 
     Storm; and
       Whereas the U.S.S. Wisconsin, decommissioned on September 
     30, 1991, is berthed at Portsmouth, Virginia; and may soon be 
     berthed at Nauticus, the National Maritime Museum in Norfolk, 
     Virginia, where she would serve as a floating monument and an 
     educational museum: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) a commemorative postage stamp should be issued by the 
     United States Postal Service in honor of the U.S.S. Wisconsin 
     and all those who served aboard her; and
       (2) the Citizen's Stamp Advisory Committee should recommend 
     to the Postmaster General that such a postage stamp be 
     issued.

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