[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 16]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 22395]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        TRIBUTE TO KIM GREGURICH

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JOHN SHIMKUS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 13, 2001

  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Pleasant 
Hill, Illinois, as well as all Americans who have given their support 
to the cause of bringing home our POWs.
  Like thousands of other Americans, Kim is the owner of a POW/MIA 
bracelet--a copper band inscribed with the name of a soldier who was 
either listed as missing in action or as a prisoner of war during our 
time in Vietnam. The name on Kim's bracelet is Lieutenant Commander 
Robert Shumaker, a pilot shot down in 1965. She has had the bracelet 
for over thirty years; she bought it to show her support of our armed 
forces, and promised never to take it off unless her POW was released. 
These bracelets were a method of putting public pressure on the 
Vietnamese government to send our soldiers home.
  It worked. Lieutenant Commander Shumaker was released on the Flight 
to Freedom in 1975 in part, he says, because the Vietnamese knew how 
closely the American people were watching them. Ms. Gregurich heard 
that happy report on the radio and was finally able to take off her 
bracelet.
  Now, twenty-six years later, she has decided to go one step further--
she has taken the initiative to locate Mr. Shumaker and send him the 
copper band. ``I wasn't sure if it would be a bad memory,'' she said, 
``but I just wanted him to know that there was one more person thinking 
about him while he was gone.''
  But Mr. Speaker, while Ms. Gregurich's tale is heartwarming, it is 
also a sad reminder--many Americans have not yet been able to take off 
their bracelets. There are 1,948 Americans that are still missing and 
unaccounted for from the Vietnam War; there are another 58,000 whose 
fate we know all too well. These men and women will never come home; 
so, like Ms. Gregurich, I will hold a bracelet for each of them in my 
heart.
  Mr. Speaker, Ms. Gregurich and others who put their hearts into this 
support deserve our thanks; and them men and women who fought and died 
for our country deserve our eternal gratitude. May God bless them, and 
may God bless the United States of America.

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