[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 20187-20188]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 PROMOTION OF COLONEL ROBERT T. HERBERT

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, in our closing tonight, we are going to 
advance a number of military officers who have been reported out of the 
Armed Services Committee today.
  It was with a special pleasure today that I spoke to Senator Levin 
and he told me that COL Robert T. Herbert had been reported out of the 
Armed Services Committee. Robert T. Herbert runs my Las Vegas office. 
Seventy-two percent of the people in the State of Nevada live in the 
Metropolitan Las Vegas area. He has an extremely important, responsible 
job for the people of the State of Nevada to make sure that what goes 
on in Nevada--especially on a Federal level--is something that he is 
aware of and I am aware of. He does a wonderful job. He is such a good 
person. Tonight, he will be no longer a Lieutenant Colonel but will 
become a full Colonel in the Nevada Army National Guard.
  My friend, Bob Herbert, grew up as the son of a military man, retired 
Master Sergeant Robert W. Herbert. Bob, my employee, decided at an 
early age that he wanted to become a military pilot. So even before he 
graduated from high school, he joined the Army. Of course, he is well 
educated. He did graduate from high school. He now has a master's 
degree from George Washington University. He worked very hard to get 
that. He graduated from high school in Slinger, WI, and went to basic 
training, and then on to flight school. He was immediately thereafter 
assigned to Germany where he flew patrols along the borders between 
East and West Germany. This, as we all

[[Page 20188]]

know, were the front lines of the Cold War.
  After he was reassigned from Germany, Colonel Herbert completed his 
undergraduate work at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He then 
went to test pilot school and became an Army test pilot.
  As a test pilot, he flew helicopters which, as we all know, are so 
important not only in modern military missions but also for important 
jobs at home, such as fighting fires and the emergency transport of 
accident victims.
  I just finished a telephone conversation with my friend Don 
Phillips--my friend of longstanding who lives in Lincoln County, NV, in 
Caliente actually, 145 miles from Las Vegas--and a helicopter took his 
wife Dorothy to a hospital in Las Vegas where she is very ill. 
Helicopters are important for all kinds of uses.
  All these years, Bob has been moving around from place to place, and 
he wanted someplace to settle down. One of his fellow test pilots was a 
man named Randy Sayre who was from Fallon, NV. He told Colonel Herbert 
what hundreds of thousands of other people have discovered--that Nevada 
is a great place to live.
  So when Bob got out of the Army, he moved to Reno and joined the 
Nevada Army National Guard. About that time, as a member of the 
Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, I learned that Bob Herbert was 
really good. He is someone whom I met. He had connections in the 
military circles in Nevada. I had heard about Bob, that he was not only 
good with military matters but also good with numbers.
  At my request, he arranged to come to Washington and work in 
Washington as a fellow with the Brookings Institution. He was assigned 
to me. During that time, I had the privilege of pinning Bob with his 
Lieutenant Colonel insignia when he made that rank.
  I also grew to depend on his judgment and advice, not just about 
military matters but about many other issues. He was able to make 
decisions and had a lot of common sense.
  When his fellowship was finished, he joined my staff here in 
Washington. He worked on military and veterans affairs, and 
transportation and technology issues. He came to work here in my 
Washington office while continuing to serve his Guard unit in Nevada.
  As I mentioned earlier, he also earned a master's degree in public 
administration from George Washington University, my alma mater, 
working full time when he was doing this.
  He worked for me 4 years back here, and I asked him if he would 
return to Nevada. He is not from Las Vegas. He is from northern Nevada, 
Reno, but being the good soldier he is, he agreed to do this.
  He has done a tremendous job in this very demanding position, and 
during all this, he continues to fulfill all his duties in the Army 
National Guard.
  Colonel Herbert now has 29 years of service, which you would never 
believe if you met him because he looks so young. He is the State Army 
Aviation Officer, meaning he is in charge of all the Army aviation 
guard in Nevada.
  He has more than 7,000 hours as a pilot, and that time is split about 
half with helicopters and half with airplanes.
  In the Nevada Army National Guard, they mostly fly helicopters. They 
have the OH-58, which is used in counterdrug trafficking and the 
Blackhawk, which is an air ambulance unit, and the Chinook, which is 
used for heavy lifting and is especially useful for fighting fires. 
They also have a KingAir airplane.
  We all trust people who work for us. We trust their judgment, and we 
rely on their experience and skill, but I literally trust Bob Herbert 
with my life, as he has flown me to various places around the State of 
Nevada.
  I am very proud of this man, the way he represents me, the State of 
Nevada, and the Senate. I know all Nevadans are proud not only of 
Colonel Herbert but all the brave men and women who are serving our 
State and our Nation today.

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