[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 20]
[Senate]
[Pages 27581-27582]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              VETERANS DAY

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, before the Republican leader leaves the 
floor, let me thank him for his comments about the Berlin Wall, which 
are very appropriate. I still have on my desk in my office in the 
Capitol a large piece of stone from the Berlin Wall. I was there a few 
weeks after the wall came down. It took a long time for it to come 
down. The symbol of that I look at every single day as a reminder of 
what all of us knew for so many years; that is, there is something 
terribly wrong

[[Page 27582]]

about a system that creates a wall to keep in its people.
  So I appreciate the comments on the 20th anniversary, and I think it 
is appropriate to recognize the great achievement that occurred 20 
years ago when that wall did come down, much to the surprise of many 
that something like that could ever occur.
  Today, Mr. President, I want to speak, if I may, for a couple of 
minutes and to share some brief thoughts in honor of our veterans on 
Veterans Day. It is a day, of course, to acknowledge the sacrifice of 
those who have served and those who have given their lives to secure 
the very liberty we enjoy as Americans.
  Forty-three members of the U.S. military from my home State of 
Connecticut have made that ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan 
over the past several years. They are all deeply missed, and today our 
thoughts are with them and their families and friends. This Veterans 
Day, we feel an additional sense of loss in the wake of the shocking 
slaughter at Fort Hood last week. Our anger and bewilderment at this 
horrific act of violence are matched only by the sadness of the loss of 
these young, brave men and women. We keep the wounded and the families 
of the victims in our prayers and our minds.
  Mr. President, we are proud to be a nation with an All-Volunteer 
military. No one comes to your door and tells you that you have been 
chosen to shoulder the burden of protecting that which we all hold 
dear. It is a burden welcomed by our soldiers, sailors, airmen, 
marines, and coastguardsmen. If all they did was to raise their hands, 
we would owe them a profound debt of gratitude. But for those who do 
volunteer, military service isn't just a patriotic obligation, it is an 
honor, and it is a way of life.
  Our men and women in uniform fulfill their duties with unparalleled 
skill and pride. They represent the greatest fighting force the world 
has ever known, but also the finest core of infantrymen, pilots, 
drivers, mechanics, and logistical support staff you will find anywhere 
in any enterprise. If you visit with our troops, you meet all kinds of 
men and women: first generation Americans, those with a long family 
history of service, members of every race, religion, and, yes, even 
gays and lesbians serve as well, as we all know. Most of them seem 
impossibly young to me. All of them are unmistakably proud to be 
serving the United States of America.
  Some of them will come home to a hero's welcome, applauded at the 
airports and greeted by the warm embrace of children who seem to have 
grown a foot while their mother or father was overseas. Some will come 
home with wounds that will require a lifetime of recovery; sometimes 
they are wounds we cannot see. Some of them will come home to find that 
the home they once knew is gone, and they will need a tremendous amount 
of our help and support to get back on their feet. All of them, of 
course, Mr. President, deserve our gratitude. All of them need our 
support, and all of them deserve to know, as they risk their lives, 
that the benefits they have earned will be there for them when they 
return.
  Although I know we all share a deep appreciation for our men and 
women in uniform, the sad truth is that some in Washington have in 
previous years treated veterans' benefits as a line item like any 
other, subject to the political whims of the annual budget battles we 
have.
  Let's be clear, if we can. Those benefits aren't a gift from a 
generous Congress. Those benefits are earned by our veterans, earned 
with sweat and blood and tireless duty. They represent the most sacred 
of promises, and they are promises we must keep.
  That is why I have always fought for funding of veterans' benefits, 
including the best health care we have to offer, so that when our 
troops incur medical costs in defense of our Nation, they do not have 
to pay them out of their own pockets. That is why I have supported the 
post 9/11 GI bill, so that troops can continue their education, and 
fought to include military families under the Family and Medical Leave 
Act, so the burden of caring for a loved one doesn't crush a family who 
has already sacrificed so much.
  We make these commitments to our troops in recognition of the 
commitment they have made to us. Today is a day to celebrate that 
commitment and to mark the many sacrifices it entails. Today, we think 
of young men and women across our Nation, just out of high school in 
many cases, sitting down with their parents to tell them they have 
heard the call to serve, pushing through the difficult days of basic 
training, facing that very first deployment to the battlefield. Today 
we think of those families they leave behind, as they pray for the safe 
return of their loved ones.
  Today we will all think of those who have come home draped in the 
flag they have sacrificed their lives to defend, and those whose lives 
have been forever changed by the injuries they have suffered in defense 
of our liberties and freedoms. These are our sons and daughters, our 
fathers and mothers. They are neighbors of ours and friends and 
colleagues. They are truly our fellow heroes.
  Today we thank them for their service, we mark their sacrifice, we 
take pride in their remarkable courage, and we reaffirm our commitment 
to keeping the promise we made when they raised their hands and 
volunteered.
  Mr. President, I know I am not alone in my gratitude for our 
soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coastguardsmen. I certainly know 
I am not alone in my pride in our talented and dedicated military. I 
hope the troops who are away from home this Veterans Day, those who 
have returned, and the families who have helped carry their burden, 
will know they are not alone either. We all stand with them.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Arizona.

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