[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16726-16727]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO ADMIRAL JAMES BOND STOCKDALE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Poe). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham) is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, let me read the citation of Admiral 
Stockdale's Medal of Honor, just so people understand. ``By his heroic 
action, in great peril to himself, he earned the everlasting gratitude 
of his fellow POWs and to his country.'' This was Admiral Stockdale. He 
was our friend, and he died.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time that this Nation honor both Admiral Stockdale 
and his wife Sybil for the sacrifices that they gave to this country. 
Every dog face pilot, enlisted and officer, knew about the courage, not 
only of Admiral Stockdale, but the rest of our POWs. Sybil organized, 
not just for the MIAs, but for the POWs together, the entire program 
that supported the families of the MIAs and the POWs, and for that we 
honor them.
  We know what the family is going through, even from July 5, the 
sadness that they have. But they can go to sleep at night knowing that 
Admiral Stockdale and Sybil, that this country owes a great, great deal 
to those individuals.
  People in San Diego and around this country, it is time to remember 
Admiral Stockdale and Sybil for not only their patriotism, but the 
sacrifices of men like Sam Johnson, like John McCain, like Jeremiah 
Denton and the other POWs and some of those that did not come back.
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. HUNTER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I was just looking at the price tag of some of our high 
performance aircraft that we are going to be buying. You look at it and 
you say, we do not want to pay that, and then you reflect on the 
prisoners of war and that incredible defensive barrier that our pilots 
had to fly in, fly through to get into their targets in North Vietnam, 
and you say to yourself at that point I only want our pilots to have 
the very best.
  So while I guess I am like everybody else, I get a little sticker 
shock when I look at the price of an aircraft. Of course, we get the 
same thing when we look at the price of a new car today in this 
country. I reflect when I see the incredible courage of those who strap 
themselves into that cockpit and fly out to protect American freedom 
and to protect our country, that they need the very, very best.
  I would just ask the gentleman, because I know that he is familiar 
with the MiG aircraft, the latest high performance MiG aircraft, and I 
think one of his jobs, because the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Cunningham) knows aircraft, one of his jobs is to make sure that we 
keep high performance capability in the skies. I would just ask him for 
his reflections on what he thinks we need to do to maintain a strong 
American air power.
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, I am a Navy guy, but the F-22 is the 
only airplane in the inventory that is projected that will compete with 
the SU-30 and SU-37.
  To give my colleagues a comparison, Admiral Stockdale was flying an 
A-4 Skyhawk. At the time it was not a bad airplane, but they did not 
have the new PH or the P-408 engines, which is more powerful. And they 
loaded bombs on that little Skyhawk and it made it real cumbersome 
flying. I was lucky enough to fly Phantoms and some F-8s and other 
airplanes like the Thud and so on, but those little A-4 Skyhawks were 
pretty vulnerable.
  Admiral Stockdale was shot down in 1965 before they each had surface-
to-air missiles in Vietnam, he was shot down by Triple A, and those 
airplanes were slow and cumbersome. That is why we do not want our men 
and women flying airplanes that are not the best or driving Humvees 
that are not armored or other things, because if you look at the 
history of the past, like Admiral Stockdale and John McCain and 
Jeremiah Denton and all the others, that they were shot down, and not 
because they had necessarily inferior equipment, but not the best 
equipment. That is what we want to make sure of today, that our men and 
women who are serving overseas, as the chairman of the authorization 
defense committee, the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter) has 
dedicated his life. His son was in the Marine Corps and served I think 
twice in Iraq.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I know that my son would like to remind the 
gentleman that it was a Marine pilot who rescued you when you went 
down.
  But there is another point to American air power, and I think 
American air power in the future, and that is something that one of our 
real giants, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), brought up, along 
with the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), was this provision 
that we just passed, that just passed the House in his amendment to his 
bill, which gives the President leverage against Western countries, 
European countries, our allies who would sell military technology to 
China. Because there is a possibility that at some point in the future 
we may be in a conflict with China, and I think it would be a terrible 
thing if we saw any type of technology that gives them the ability to 
acquire American aircraft on a radar screen or to launch weaponry or 
munitions at that aircraft, or to have in their own aircraft, I would 
hate to see American stealth capability and technology.
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, China is building the SU-30, which beats 
our American airplanes, our best F-14s, F-15s, F-16s, and F-18s, 90 
percent of the time. It is an opportunity, but it is also a potential 
threat.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I just would like to end by saying I think 
one way we can remember Admiral Stockdale is to keep our country

[[Page 16727]]

strong and be faithful to those who served, including Admiral 
Stockdale.

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