[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 9] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages 13085-13086] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]BUFFALO SOLDIER: MOUND BAYOU RESIDENT, ONE OF AMERICA'S LAST ______ HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON of mississippi in the house of representatives Thursday, June 16, 2005 Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Rev. C.L. Woodley. Rev. Woodley currently' presides in Mound Bayou, Mississippi and is one of the last Buffalo Soldiers in the Nation. I submit the following article by Robert Smith of the Cleveland News Leader in Cleveland, Mississippi. The Rev. C.L. Woodley's moral conscience is still powerfully stirred by events he witnessed when he served in the U.S. Army during World War II. ``I pray for America. We're in bad shape and don't know it,'' the retired African Methodist Episcopal (AME) presiding elder says, reflecting on both past and present. Woodley, 85, is one of the last of the Buffalo Soldiers-- African Americans trained as horse-riding cavalrymen, who served the nation in both peacetime and war from the late 1860s up through the mid 1940s--Native Americans of the Great Plains were the source of the nickname. A native of Stringtown, Woodley was drafted in 1941 and received his cavalry instruction at Camp Funston, Kansas. He later took part in U.S. military actions in North African and Italy. However, he recalls with a laugh that he had experience as a rider before he trained with horses at Camp Funston. As a youth in the Stringtown area, in southwest Bolivar County, he was a jockey in mule races. Today, he still rides a bicycle in the mornings, he explained. Turning the pages of his photo album, Woodley commented during an interview at his home about how he and other soldiers had to cross the burning, but not sunken, remains of a bombed ship to get from their vessel to shore when they arrived at Casablanca, Morocco. He became motor-pool sergeant for a contingent of replacement troops, who supported men on the fighting line, and the sound of shells and bombs exploding became a regular feature of their environment. ``We got it so bad until you could tell the sound of a German plane from an American plane,'' he said. In addition to the dangers of combat, Woodley had disturbing experiences with which he still grapples. Among those experiences was the sight of hungry civilians begging for food--mothers asking U.S. soldiers for bits of their rations to feed to keep the civilians back. ``Our orders were to take that club and beat them back, but I told the commanding officer I didn't have the heart to do it,'' he said, adding that he is concerned about how the U.S. treats civilians in present-day conflicts, such as the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. ``I don't know whether we'll ever get out of this war. There are way too many people getting killed,'' he said, voicing anxiety that America may be losing men and women it will need in the future. He sees a national indifference to the value of life expressed both in our foreign policy and in social practices such as legalized abortion. ``God is not dead,'' Woodley warns. ``I might lie to you but that Bible's going to come true.'' When he returned to Mississippi after his Army days, Woodley studied at Campbell College in the Jackson area and became an AME clergyman. He served for more than 40 years as a presiding elder in the church, which means he was responsible for helping the bishop to supervise preachers. He became senior presiding elder of the Eight AME District, comprised of Mississippi and Louisiana. Woodley settled in Mount Bayou with his wife, Willie Thelma Woodley, who was a native of the historic settlement founded by former slaves of Joe Davis. Shelton Woodley of Mound Bayou, one of the minister's sons, says his own service in the Vietnam War helped him to appreciate and better understand his father's experiences. The elder Mr. Woodley, who stays busy keeping up the shrubbery at his home and at the Mound Bayou branch of the Bank of Bolivar County, says he hates to be idle. He recalls how hard work shaped him as a child. ``I picked 200 pounds of cotton in Stringtown, Mississippi, when I was nine years old,'' he says with a smile. [[Page 13086]] Most of us are aware of the contributions that men like Rev. C.L. Woodley and the Buffalo Soldiers have made to the preservation of our Nation and our democracy. In the history of the Buffalo Soldiers there were not only men that served, but women as well. Cathy Williams, the only woman who served in 1866 as a Buffalo Soldier, also deserves recognition by the House; therefore, these are men and women of courage, bravery, and honor. The remarkable irony of the history of the Buffalo Soldiers and many other African American soldiers like Rev. Woodley is that they fought to preserve the high ideals of liberty, freedom, and democracy; however, they were fighting for principles and privileges that they themselves were being denied on their own soil. Mr. Speaker and to the Members of Congress, too many times do we celebrate the men and women of our armed services and veterans after they are no longer with us. I ask you to join in saluting Mr. Woodley and the men and women of the Buffalo Soldiers, to ensure him while he is living and well that we are grateful and indebted to him and others like him for his service in the United States Army. ____________________