[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8338]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING OUR SERVICEMEN AND WOMEN

  (Mrs. BLACKBURN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam Speaker, this has been quite a week here in the 
House. And I think that so many of my colleagues have noted how we hear 
from constituents about how feistily we come to the floor and how we 
debate and how we discuss the issues and the policies of the day and 
even tonight as we have stood to honor one of our colleagues who is 
taking on a new challenge. And I think it is so appropriate, Madam 
Speaker, that we recognize the fact that we do this because we are 
free. We are a free people. And we do it because we live in a Nation 
where men and women choose to sacrifice their lives, their time, their 
talent to preserve that freedom.
  I noticed in The Washington Post today there is a great article about 
the Iraqi Army, now over 150,000 strong, being trained by American men 
and women in uniform who have chosen, who have chosen, to serve their 
Nation.
  Madam Speaker, in Tennessee we have the 278th regiment that is on the 
Iraq-Iran border training many of these new Iraqi military men. And I 
want to honor them in their service and all of our men and women and 
say ``thank you'' and God speed for the good work they do in preserving 
freedom.

                          ____________________