[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14332]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            DAD--AMERICAN GI

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, born in the 1920s, he grew up in the Depression 
of the 1930s, and like most rural American children, he grew up poor. 
Fresh vegetables were grown in the family garden behind the small frame 
house. His mother made sandwiches for school out of homemade bread. 
Store-bought bread, as he called it, was for the rich. He grew up 
belonging to the Boy Scouts, playing the trumpet in the high school 
band, and he went to church almost every Sunday.
  In 1944, this 18-year-old country boy who had never been more than 50 
miles from home finally found himself going through basic training for 
the United States Army at Camp Walters in Camp Walters, Texas. After 
that he rode the train with hundreds of other young teenage American 
males to New York City for the ocean trip on a cramped Liberty ship to 
fight in the great World War II.
  As a soldier in the 7th Army, he went from France on to survive the 
Battle of the Bulge and through the cities of Aachen, Stuttgart, 
Cologne, Bonn and others. He thought General Patton was the greatest 
soldier that ever lived, and as a teenager, this young soldier saw the 
concentration camps and the victims of the Nazis. He saw incredible 
numbers of other teenage Americans buried in graves throughout France. 
One monument to those soldiers is on the cliffs at a place called 
Normandy.
  After Germany surrendered, he went back to Ft. Hood, Texas, expecting 
to be reequipped for the land invasion of Japan. It was there he met 
his wife at a Wednesday-night prayer meeting service at church.
  Until a few years ago, this GI would never talk about World War II, 
and he still will not say much except he does say that heroes are the 
ones that are buried in Europe today.
  After the war, he opened a DX service station where he pumped gas, 
sold tires, fixed cars and began a family. Deciding he needed to go to 
college, he moved to west Texas and enrolled in a small Christian 
college called Abilene Christian College. He and his wife and his two 
small children lived in an old converted Army barracks with other such 
families. He supported his family by working nights at KRBC radio and 
climbing telephone poles for Ma Bell, later called Southwestern Bell.
  He finished college, became an engineer and worked 40-plus years for 
Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in Houston, Texas. He turned down a 
promotion and a transfer to New York City because it was not Texas, and 
he said it was no place to raise a family.
  This GI, my dad, instilled in my sister and me the values of being a 
neighbor to all, loving our country, loving our heritage and always 
just doing the right thing by all people.
  He still gets mad at the Northeastern media. He flies the flag on 
holidays. He goes to church on Sunday, and he takes Mom out to eat 
every Friday night. He stands in the front yard, and he talks to his 
neighbors. He can fix anything. He knows more about world events than 
most politicians. He still mows his own grass, even though he's over 80 
years of age, and he has a strong opinion on politics and world issues. 
He gives plenty of advice to all people, including me. He has two 
computers in his home office. He sends e-mails to hundreds of his 
buddies throughout the world.
  Dad and Mom still live in Houston not far from where I grew up. My 
dad is a charter member of the Greatest Generation. He was proud to be 
in the United States Army, but he, like many Americans of that 
generation, get emotional about the ones who died for this Nation.
  Mr. Speaker, not far from this Capitol is the World War II memorial 
that honors those who never returned from Europe, Africa, the South 
Pacific in the great World War II. This memorial lists the battles, the 
names, and the States and the territories where those warriors called 
home. In the back of this memorial is a massive bronze-looking plate, 
but on closer inspection, Mr. Speaker, it's not a bronze plate at all. 
It's actually 1,000 bronze stars. Each star represents 400 Americans 
killed for our country in World War II, 400,000 Americans, mostly kids 
in their teens and in their early twenties who gave their youth for our 
future. Further down the Mall are the memorials for Vietnam and Korea, 
and in the brush is the World War I memorial that is hidden among the 
trees.
  So today, Mr. Speaker, as we approach Memorial Day to honor those who 
have fought in the great World War II, and all American wars, we honor 
not only my dad and those who returned in victory, but also, we honor 
all those American heroes who never returned and for whom the bugles 
have played Taps for the last time.
  And that's just the way it is.

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