[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 9354]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



 HISTORY OF THE WEST PALM BEACH VETERANS ADMINISTRATION MEDICAL CENTER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JOHN L. MICA

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 23, 2001

  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, the West Palm Beach Department of Veterans 
Affairs Medical Center in Florida was inspired by the life, military 
service and death of Pfc. John Mica. Army Corpsman Mica was born on 
April 3, 1915 in Binghamton, NY, served as a private in the U.S. Army 
from 1943-44, and died July 16, 1972 in a crowded veterans hospital in 
Miami, Florida.
  Because of the circumstances of John Mica's death in that veterans 
facility, which was strained to capacity, his son Daniel A. Mica made 
construction of a new South Florida veterans hospital one of his goals 
when elected to the U.S. Congress. From 1978 to 1988, Congressman 
Daniel Mica, a member of the House Veterans Committee, cited the need 
for additional veterans medical facilities in Florida at every meeting 
of that Congressional panel over the decade of his service.
  Congressman Daniel Mica, on February 8, 1983 during the 98th 
Congress, introduced H.R. 1348, ``A bill to construct a new Veterans 
Administration hospital in the State of Florida.'' Construction of the 
Palm Beach County Veterans' Hospital was completed in 1994.
  This history has been submitted into the Congressional Record by 
Congressman John L. Mica in memory of his father, Pfc. John Mica, and 
also in recognition of his brother Daniel's contribution to the 
veterans of the State of Florida.

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