[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 1820]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      IN TRIBUTE TO REPRESENTATIVE JOHN P. MURTHA OF PENNSYLVANIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Welch) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELCH. Madam Speaker, one of the qualities, of, I think, a great 
person is that they don't see themselves as great. They really see 
themselves as ordinary.
  If they value something about themselves, it's that being ordinary 
allows them to do generous and good things for other people. Jack 
Murtha was a huge figure for those of us who were in my class, the 
class of 2006. People may remember that the big debate that year was 
about the war in Iraq.
  I ran as a person who was opposed to that war, and I remember during 
the campaign being very dispirited wondering where we were going. Then 
a voice rose out of Washington, and it was a Vietnam veteran, it was a 
combat decorated marine, it was the chair of the Defense Appropriations 
Subcommittee, it was a man who had the highest credentials as an 
advocate for the military. That voice, of course, was Jack Murtha.

                              {time}  1930

  And he stood up and he said that this war was wrong. He said that his 
vote was a mistake.
  What attracted me, I think my classmates, and all of my colleagues 
who have been speaking to this man, Jack Murtha, was his generosity--he 
was always wondering what could he do for you today--his integrity, but 
he also had a quality of incredible strength. You gravitated to Jack 
because he was a strong man, strong in his convictions, strong in his 
will to carry on, and yet with the strength of a person who had the 
strength of mind and was willing to experience and analyze what was 
going on. When he came to his conclusion about Iraq, it was through the 
eyes of the soldier on the ground in assessing what was going on and 
why.
  Even as he changed his policy position on Iraq, no one was a stronger 
supporter of the troops getting what they needed to be safe and getting 
what they needed to be taken care of when they got home. And what he 
understood and he began to teach this Congress and this country was 
that if we respect the valor of these men and women who are willing to 
subordinate their own judgment to take an oath of allegiance to the 
flag of the Commander in Chief and to report for duty when and where 
ordered by the President, then Congress and he, Jack Murtha, had a 
solemn responsibility to do every single thing in his body, mind, 
heart, and soul to provide those soldiers with a policy that was worthy 
of the sacrifice they were willing to make.
  Like I think everybody here in Congress, when Jack would ask what 
Jack could do for me, I oftentimes had an answer. But the first time he 
asked me that question was the first day of my experience here in 
Congress. I said to Jack, I understand that you go out and visit the 
troops often at Bethesda and at Walter Reed. And he told me he did. He 
usually went alone, almost always went alone, always quietly, never any 
press, never any entourage. I asked him if in the course of my 2 years 
in Congress sometime he would take me to go with him, and it turned out 
that the next day he did.
  I will never forget going through the Bethesda Naval Hospital with 
Jack Murtha and seeing how, when he talked to our troops who suffered 
incredible injuries, he had that same directness, that same pride, that 
same confidence in engaging these soldiers--What happened? How did it 
happen? Was it an IED? Was it trip wire? Was it pressure activated?
  He knew everything about the experience of these soldiers. And he 
wasn't sentimental. He was direct. He was blunt. And in that strength 
he was warm and encouraging and respectful to the service of those 
soldiers. It is something only a person with Jack's strength of 
character could do.
  We all know that Jack was endlessly challenged by the press for the 
so-called earmarks. I remember that he took the criticism as though it 
was a grain of salt, and when asked, he would hold up a document 
saying, this is my power. It is in the Constitution, and I take care of 
my people.
  We lost a great man.

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