[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16499-16500]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO C. FRANK RAPIER

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I wish to express my thanks and 
appreciation to one of Kentucky's hardest working public servants at 
the end of a long career. Charles Frank Rapier, the executive director 
of the Appalachian high intensity drug trafficking area--that is kind 
of a mouthful, and we have a way to shorten that called Appalachia 
HIDTA--will be retiring this November after 46 years in law 
enforcement.
  This guy is a bit of a legend, Madam President. Director Rapier--
called Frank by his friends--has been leading the Appalachia HIDTA 
Program since 2003. Prior to his appointment, he served as deputy 
director of that program for Kentucky. The Appalachia HIDTA Program was 
established in 1998 to combat one of our country's greatest problems: 
illegal drug trafficking and drug abuse.
  The problem of drug abuse that Frank has pledged his career to 
fighting is particularly bad in my home State of Kentucky. Kentucky 
ranks in the top three of marijuana-producing States. More Kentuckians 
died of drug overdoses in 2009 than in fatal car crashes--an 
astonishing 82 per month. The threat from illegal meth use poses a 
problem across the State as well. This rampant drug abuse increases 
crime and destroys families in Kentucky.
  Under Frank's leadership, the Appalachia HIDTA Program has attacked 
drug trafficking organizations in the tristate area of Kentucky, West 
Virginia, and Tennessee head on. And let me say, Madam President, he 
has done an amazing job, a truly amazing job.
  Specifically, in 2009, Appalachia HIDTA disrupted or dismantled 82 
separate drug trafficking organizations. That translates into hundreds 
of thousands of marijuana plants destroyed and hundreds of arrests. In 
2006, they kept an estimated $1 billion worth of profits off of illegal 
drug activities out of the State of Kentucky.
  Frank played an integral role in arranging a visit to Kentucky 
earlier this year by Gil Kerlikowske, the Director of the White House 
Office of National Drug Control Policy, better known as the Nation's 
drug czar. The Director's visit, which I was proud to help facilitate, 
has been an important step in maintaining our focus in Kentucky to stem 
drug abuse and save our family members, friends, and neighbors from the 
dangers of drug addiction and drug-related crimes during a time of 
shrinking Federal resources.
  As a strong supporter of efforts to fight drug abuse in Kentucky, I 
have gotten to know Frank and have seen firsthand his efforts. He is a 
humble man, but he is highly respected in the law enforcement community 
throughout the State--and even the Nation, for that matter--for the 
wonderful job he has done. I know his dedication and leadership in this 
important fight against illegal drugs will be greatly missed.
  Frank knows well the area he has worked so hard to protect. Born and 
raised in Corbin, KY, he received his bachelor's degree from Eastern 
Kentucky University where he began his law enforcement service as an 
EKU campus police officer. He attended graduate school at Xavier 
University, served as an instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement 
Training Academy at Glynco, GA, has taught at numerous police 
academies, and has been a speaker at many law enforcement conferences.
  Before working with Appalachia HIDTA, Frank was a special agent with 
the U.S. Treasury Department for 32 years. He was a member of the 
National Undercover Resource Pool and the National Response Team. Over 
the course of his long career, he has served many assignments with the 
U.S. Secret Service and State Department, including working as a member 
of the Southeast Bomb Task Force that investigated the Olympic bombing 
case in Atlanta in 1996.
  While with the Treasury Department, Frank received four Special 
Achievement Awards, a Special Act Award, a Performance Award, and the 
Director's Award/Masengale Memorial Award.
  After 46 years in law enforcement, I wish Frank congratulations on a 
job

[[Page 16500]]

well done and best wishes in his retirement. Countless Kentuckians owe 
their thanks to Frank as well.
  Frank regularly describes the practice of asking his granddad: What 
did you do in the war? He feels prepared to be asked the same question 
himself now as he nears the end of his career. He knows someday there 
will be an accounting. He has worked all his professional life so that 
his answer to that question can be: I fought back against a tide of 
illegal drugs and saved lives. He has certainly done that, and more.
  I know my colleagues in the Senate join me in thanking Director 
Rapier for decades of service. The work he has done for so many years 
has created a safer, stronger Kentucky.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.

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