[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9433]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        A MARINE--A MEMORIAL DAY

  (Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, Harlon Block and his high school teammates took 
their friendship, bravery and boldness off the football field and on to 
the battlefield.
  Twenty-two-year-old Corporal Block, from the small border town of 
Weslaco, Texas, would end his journey as a Marine atop an extinct 
volcano on Iwo Jima. February 23, 1945. The single most patriotic 
photographic scene in American history would erupt.
  Six men vowed to raise a large American flag atop Mt. Suribachi, as 
they said, ``so that every Marine on this cruddy island can see it.''
  That picture would be the last for three of those heroes, including 
Harlon Block. Admiral Chester Nimitz said, ``Among the men who fought 
on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.''
  Harlon Block's desire to fight for freedom was a common trait for 
those warriors who thought the American flag was worth dying for.
  This Memorial Day we will remember men like Harlon Block, the other 
400,000 of the Greatest Generation who died in the great World War II 
and all those who died in America and for America's service.
  We shall never flinch, never flee, never fear, because we will never 
forget the Americans.
  And that's just the way it is.

                          ____________________