[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3103]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO CHARLIE WILSON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Mr. Gene Green) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. I'm proud to follow my colleague from North 
Carolina. We share his support and his prayers for our men and women 
serving this country. That's why it's so important tonight to be here 
to honor the late Member of Congress, Charlie Wilson, from east Texas.
  I first met Charlie Wilson in 1972, as a young State representative. 
He had just been elected to Congress. It was a fundraiser for him at 
the Intercontinental Airport, The Marriott, in Houston. I was 25-years-
old and went out there, and the State senator who was just elected to 
Congress, and heard Charlie tell the folks stories. And this is 1972--
long before Afghanistan, long before Charlie Wilson became known as 
``good-time Charlie.'' In fact, in Texas, as a State senator he's known 
as ``Timber Charlie'' because he represented the timber trees of east 
Texas. But a great Member. He was elected in 1972, like I said, to the 
U.S. House of Representatives from the Second District. He was elected 
11 times. He did not run for reelection in 1996. In fact, he resigned 
in October of 1996.
  Charles Nesbitt Wilson was born in Trinity, Texas, where his father 
was an accountant for a lumber company, on June 1, 1933, in the depths 
of the Depression. He attended the Naval Academy in Annapolis and 
graduated in 1956. He served 4 years in the Navy, from 1956 to 1960, 
and came back to Texas, where he was elected to the State house and the 
State senate.
  Charlie Wilson died on February 10, 2010, at Lufkin Memorial Hospital 
in Lufkin, Texas, where he had been taken after collapsing earlier in 
the day and suffered from a cardiopulmonary arrest. He was pronounced 
dead at 12:16 p.m. Central Time. Congressman Wilson received a 
graveside service with full military honors at the Arlington National 
Cemetery on February 23, 2010.
  Now for some of the stories about Charlie Wilson as a friend. I'm 
glad my colleague from Texas, Joe Barton, is here, and Congressman Chet 
Edwards and Al Green and Sheila Jackson Lee, because Charlie had some 
stories that we couldn't tell on the floor of the House. But I'm going 
to tell you some of the good ones.
  He is survived by his wife, Barbara, the former Barbara Alberstadt, 
and his sister, Sharon Allison. Charlie told me many times, like he 
told other Members, that he credited his wife Barbara with saving his 
life because it got him off a lot of things that he shouldn't have been 
on to begin with. In having seen him many times after he left Congress, 
Charlie was still Charlie.
  Charlie entered politics as a teenager. He began by running a 
campaign against his next-door neighbor, a city council member in 
Trinity, Texas. When Charlie was 13, his dog entered that neighbor's 
yard--a city council member--and he retaliated by mixing glass in the 
dog's food and causing fatal internal bleeding. Being a farmer's son, 
Charlie was able to get a driver's permit at age 13. And so he was 
going to pay that council member back. So he drove 96 people to the 
polls on the next election at age 13--it was mainly black citizens, 
African American citizens from the poor side of town--to make sure they 
knew what happened to his dog. That incumbent lost by 16 votes. So 
Charlie Wilson entered politics at 13 years of age by defeating a city 
council member in his neighborhood.
  Charlie had so many things I could tell you; wrapping his arm around 
us and giving us that counsel. But I think he's best known outside of 
Texas for being the leader in Congress during the 1980s and known for 
supporting Operation Cyclone, the largest-ever Central Intelligence 
Agency covert operation, under President Reagan's administration, by 
supplying military equipment, including antiaircraft weapons such as 
Stinger antiaircraft missiles and paramilitary officers from their 
Special Activities Division to the Afghan Mujahedeen during the Soviet 
war in Afghanistan. From a few million dollars in the 1980s, his 
support for the resistance grew to $750 million a year by the end of 
the decade.
  I remember Charlie Wilson telling us in 1996, when he was leaving, 
and earlier, that we made a mistake by abandoning Afghanistan. And 
literally after 9/11, he came and talked to the delegation and said we 
made a mistake, and we're paying the price for it right now because we 
left Afghanistan in turmoil and ended up with the Taliban. We don't 
need to make that mistake again. That's why tonight I'm proud to honor 
Charlie Wilson in his service to our country.

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