[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 13342-13343]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



CONGRATULATIONS TO SERGEANT HAROLD F. ADKISON CHAPTER OF THE KOREAN WAR 
        VETERANS ASSOCIATION UPON RECEIVING THEIR FORMAL CHARTER

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. LINDSEY O. GRAHAM

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 16, 2001

  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Sergeant 
Harold F. Adkison Chapter of the Korean War Veterans Association for 
recently receiving their formal charter. On June 25, 2001, as a result 
of their tireless efforts, this chapter was officially established.
  This chapter had fifty charter members before its petition for a 
charter was submitted, an unprecedented show of commitment. For this, 
the Sergeant Harold F. Adkison Chapter should certainly be commended.

[[Page 13343]]

  America's Armed Forces are exceptional, because unlike other nations 
our military not only defends the homeland and our people, but we 
protect the freedom of all men. In World War I, World War II, Korea, 
Vietnam, and in the Desert Storm our men and women have gone to fight 
for freedom.
  The Korean War, regrettably, has often been referred to as the 
``forgotten war'' because it came so quickly after World War II and was 
overshadowed on the homefront by the Vietnam War and its associated 
protests. At the outbreak of hostilities, many feared that this tiny 
peninsula would be the setting for the eruption of World War III as the 
United Nations joined with the United States and the Republic of South 
Korea to stop the invasion of the North Koreans backed by both the 
Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.
  The great sacrifice to the world made by the members of this newly 
established chapter of the Korean War Veterans Association, and their 
more than 54,000 peers, was a huge gift to the cause of freedom. As the 
Korean War Veterans Memorial on the Mall reads: ``Our nation honors her 
sons and daughters who answered the call to defend a country they never 
knew and a people they never met.''
  The charter members of this new chapter should be proud of their 
sacrifices to defend freedom. Many of them lost friends to the horrors 
of combat. Their lives were changed in ways that no one can imagine, 
but they also changed the world in ways that we all can clearly see.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating these veterans on 
the establishment of the Sergeant Harold F. Adkison Chapter and in 
thanking them for their outstanding service to our nation. We owe them 
a tremendous debt of gratitude, one that we can never repay.

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