[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 9426]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            ARMED FORCES DAY

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, tomorrow we celebrate Armed Forces Day. 
Communities across my State, from Van Wert to St. Clairsville, from 
Sandusky to Ironton, will pause to honor the service and sacrifice of 
the men and women in all branches of the military service as they and 
we celebrate Armed Forces Day.
  I have held close to 100 roundtables around my State where, in many 
of them, I had the opportunity to speak with dozens of these honorable 
man and women. Those conversations reinforced my profound respect for 
their unstinting bravery, their unshakable sense of duty, and their 
unwavering commitment to our national security.
  Not long ago, at Walter Reed I visited two Ohio marines recovering 
from wounds suffered in Iraq. I asked each of them what was the first 
thing they thought about when they realized they were wounded. Both 
marines, independently of one another, said: ``Can I stay in the 
Marines.'' That simple statement speaks volumes about our men and women 
in uniform.
  Armed Forces Day is an opportunity to honor our troops, an 
opportunity to honor the sacrifices they and, equally importantly, 
their families have made to protect our Nation, and an opportunity to 
honor the promises our Nation has made to repay their services and 
sacrifices. That is so important. We are stewards of those promises. We 
have a responsibility to work every day, against opposition sometimes, 
to ensure that our Armed Forces receive the wages and benefits and 
services they have earned. Honoring our troops should be more than 
sentiment. It should be action. When we make promises to our troops, we 
should keep them. They most certainly have kept their promises to us.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I join the remarks of the Senator from 
Ohio acknowledging the great contribution made to America by our men 
and women in uniform. I hope we can honor their service, not only by 
providing for them while they are at war but providing for them as well 
when they come home. I am sure the Senator joins me in believing that a 
new GI bill which will provide for those returning soldiers is a 
fitting tribute to their service and a great investment in our future.
  For initial GI bill after World War II was born in conflict. After 
World War I, those returning soldiers marched on Washington time and 
again, demanding some payment for their service to our country. They 
were rebuffed and even attacked at times by our then Army in uniform. 
By the Second World War, we understood that we owed a great debt to the 
16 million men and women who served, and 8 million of them took 
advantage of the GI bill.
  That GI bill was groundbreaking and revolutionary. It paid for their 
tuition, their books, their room and board, as well as a monthly 
allotment so they could go to school. Those graduates of the GI bill 
became the thriving middle class of America that built our great Nation 
in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. It was the greatest single 
investment in returning soldiers in our history, and it should be 
replicated.
  Those who honor the armed services should also honor them when they 
come home, to make sure they receive all the health care and benefits 
promised and are given a chance to have a full life after having served 
our country so well.
  I am happy to identify myself with the remarks of the Senator from 
Ohio.

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