[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 27633]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        REMEMBERING PEARL HARBOR

  (Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, around breakfast time on a stunning Sunday 
sunrise, Luke Trahin, a 22-year-old sailor from Texas, noticed large 
formations of aircraft darkening the glistening sky. He kept watching 
it until suddenly bombs from the Japanese invaders started dropping on 
Pearl Harbor Naval Base. It was December 7, 1941.
  After the smoke cleared that morning of madness, the American 
battleships, the ships of the line were destroyed. 188 planes were 
destroyed. 2,471 Americans, servicemen and civilians were killed by 
this unwarranted terror from the skies.
  Luke and his buddies in Hawaii quickly got organized and for 2 days, 
waited for the Japanese landing, but it did not occur. Luke Trahin 
stayed in the Navy a total of 6 years until World War II was won by his 
greatest generation.
  He is now 86 years of age and he lives in southeast Texas. He still 
wears his Navy blues and medals on Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and, of 
course, the 4th of July. He is a proud Pearl Harbor survivor.
  To my friend, Luke Trahin, and all those who served the cause of 
freedom, and the 400,000 Americans who died in World War II, December 
7, as FDR said, is a day that will and has lived in infamy. That's just 
the way it is.

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