[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 18]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 26519]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



 RECOGNIZING THE EFFORTS OF THE GOLD STAR WIVES CHAPTER OF COLUMBUS, GA

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                            HON. MAC COLLINS

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, December 7, 2000

  Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Speaker, our nation is blessed by many veterans 
organizations including the Veterans of Foreign War and the American 
Legion. These organizations honor the living veterans and the deceased 
for their service to our country. But I would like, at this point, to 
remind the House of another veterans group which keeps alive the memory 
of veterans. The Gold Star Wives of America is a national organization 
composed of the spouses of men either killed in action, or who died as 
a result of an injury or disease incurred while on duty.
  The Chattahoochee Chapter of the Gold Star Wives of America has been 
particularly active. Thirty years ago, they began setting out flags on 
Columbus' Victory Drive on holidays honoring our veterans. This is one 
of the city's finest sights, with the star spangled banner waving on 
both sides of the avenue.
  Mrs. Wanda Funderburk, the Chattahoochee Gold Star Wives Club's 
president, says the other veterans groups help them place 120 flags 
along this road. They do this twice a year, and sometimes more often.
  The Chattahoochee Gold Star Wives became the first chapter in the 
organization to place a monument in a veterans cemetery when it erected 
a monument on the Fort Mitchell, Alabama veterans cemetery's Walk of 
Honor.
  Mr. Funderburk has been with the Gold Star Wives since 1985, when her 
husband, a Korean War veteran died. She is one of 80 fine women who are 
keeping the spirit of patriotism and the memory of our veterans' 
sacrifices alive in Columbus, Georgia.
  Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Funderburk describes her chapter as: ``We have a 
really nice bunch of ladies and we still believe in honoring what our 
husbands did, and not only our husbands, but all veterans, regardless 
of race, creed or color, or religion. We think there is no better way 
to honor our men than to raise the flag.''
  ``I'm like a child, whenever I drive down Victory Drive and see those 
flags, I still get tears in my eyes,'' she said the other day.
  That is not being a child, that is being a patriot.

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