[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26060]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           GOLD STAR MOTHERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE. Madam Speaker, yesterday, under the bright sun and blue sky 
of the Texas Sunday afternoon, American flags flew in the silent breeze 
over thousands of quiet marble uniform tombstones in the Houston 
National Cemetery. This is where Texans bury their war dead, men and 
women who go off to war for America.
  In the center of the immaculately kept cemetery, a tribute of 
sacrifice was being made to the living: Those mothers who lost their 
children in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  Mothers of Texas who gave their children that died in their youth so 
the rest of us could live in safety were honored on this Gold Star 
Mothers' Day.
  I was present along with Congressman Gene Green and Congressman Nick 
Lampson and Congressman Kevin Brady to honor these special ladies. We, 
like those present, were emotionally affected.
  Gold Star Moms are what we call them, is a mother who lost a child in 
combat. This concept started in World War I when Grace Seibold learned 
on Christmas Eve 1918 that her aviator son was killed in aerial combat 
in France. Grace Seibold directed her grief and sorrow to helping 
wounded doughboys in local DC hospitals. She formed the Gold Star 
Mothers to give support for other such moms.
  During World War I, if a son had gone off to war in the War to End 
All Wars, as it was called, a banner was hung in front of the home in 
the window for each son in the military. This banner had a blue star in 
the center of it. If the son was killed, a gold star was superimposed 
over the blue one.
  During World War II, my Grandmother Poe hung such a banner with a 
blue star in the front window of her home in the country. My dad went 
off to war when he was just 18. When my grandmother died, it was one of 
the few items she had saved. That banner never had to have a gold star 
placed on it because my dad returned safely.
  Madam Speaker, here is a banner of a Gold Star Mother. It has the 
name of the soldier that was killed, William Amundson, Jr. He was 
killed in Afghanistan. He was from Woodlands, Texas. He was a corporal 
in the United States Army.
  The blue star banners are very similar to this except in the middle 
there is a blue star rather than a gold star. And when that son or 
daughter is killed in combat, the gold star is superimposed over the 
blue one. These banners have been carried throughout all of America's 
wars since World War I and applies to sons and daughters killed in war.
  So yesterday these mothers of the fallen were there. And standing 
guard around them were the Patriot Guard motorcycle members, rugged 
Vietnam veterans who escort the fallen to this cemetery for burial. 
There was a 21-gun salute. Then after all of the speeches, these women 
were given yellow roses from Texas and the buglers played Taps for the 
fallen.
  Madam Speaker, as a father of four, I can think of nothing worse than 
to lose one of my own kids. No parent wants their son or daughter 
killed in unknown foreign lands. No parent wants their child to 
predecease them, and no parent wants their child to die in their youth. 
But it happens, and the grief can only be understood by other such 
parents.
  As Congressman Green said yesterday, ``Even the greatest heart 
surgeon in the world, Dr. Michael DeBakey, cannot repair such a broken 
heart of a mother like this.''
  Mothers are special, especially the mothers of those who wear the 
American uniform. Those who keep statistics on the last words of 
soldiers say more often than not that the dying words of many soldiers 
in combat is, ``Mother, mother.''
  It seems to me the strongest bond in all of creation is the bond 
between a mother and her child. The good Lord made it that way on 
purpose, and when that bond is broken by the loss of a child, that 
wound just never heals.
  Madam Speaker, 1 out of every 9 people in the military is from the 
State of Texas, and about 400 Texans, 10 percent of the total killed of 
4,000, have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet sons and daughters 
throughout America continue to join our military knowing that they will 
no doubt go into the desert of the sun and the valley of the gun, and 
they leave behind their parents, their mothers.
  So as we show honor and respect to America's children who serve, let 
us show American compassion and ultimate gratitude for the mothers of 
those troops who display the Gold Star sacrifice from their windows. 
And the next time we pass a house with one of these gold stars, one of 
these 4,000 throughout the United States, and they are being displayed 
in the window, maybe we should stop and say a prayer and say ``thank 
you'' because of that special mother who gave that child for the rest 
of us.
  And that's just the way it is.

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