[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16976-16977]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO CHRIS WYMAN

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, today I would like to celebrate the 
remarkable commitment demonstrated over nearly 18 years in Senate 
service by one of my most loyal and longest serving aides, Chris Wyman, 
who retired October 31.
  Chris Wyman eschews the limelight of politics and the media. But I 
know him as a close friend and a humble, self-effacing, earnest public 
servant, who ``walked point'' for me in Massachusetts on every issue 
and every case affecting military personnel, veterans, and their 
families.
  For Chris, the work was always personal. He understands the demands 
on the military and their families better than most, having enlisted 
and served on Active Duty in the Navy before he came to work for me 
shortly after I began my second term representing Massachusetts.
  The work that Chris began on my staff starting in 1993 was difficult, 
particularly for someone who found such common cause with anyone who 
had worn the uniform of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or 
Coast Guard. Their cause became Chris's concern day in and day out. The 
issues changed with time, from veterans' benefits and Agent Orange, to 
PTSD and traumatic brain injuries, but what always remained was Chris's 
special determination to help those who had served their country and 
ensure that they were always treated with dignity and respect by the 
government that had sent them into harm's way.
  In all those years, Chris was my eyes and ears on the ground in 
Massachusetts 7 days a week--the person who listened to veterans and 
their families about the many challenges affecting their lives. His 
compassion and his presence helped me to take concerns heard in 
conversations and transform them into legislation to tackle human 
problems on a more national scale.
  Among the efforts I worked on in the Senate, you can see the imprint 
of Chris's visits to veterans across Massachusetts, including the 
Helping Heroes Keep Their Home Act, which provides protection for 
servicemembers and military families against foreclosure and increased 
interest rates; a measure that made service life insurance available to 
reservists called to Active-Duty and National Guard members; the Corey 
Shea Act, which allows eligible parents of a fallen servicemember to be 
buried with their child in any of the 131 cemeteries run by the VA's 
National Cemetery Administration, if that child has no living spouse or 
children; a $20 million supplemental appropriation in 2007 for VA 
centers; seven Vet Centers in Massachusetts benefited from the measure; 
and millions of dollars more in Federal grants from the Department of 
Veterans Affairs for homeless vets shelters located throughout 
Massachusetts.
  For Chris, each of those legislative efforts began with a human face: 
veterans who were living on the streets in a country that at times had 
forgotten their sacrifices when they came home, grieving mothers and 
fathers who had lost children on the battlefield, veterans struggling 
during an economic collapse that threatened them and their families 
with foreclosure, and particularly families who had lost sons and 
daughters to PTSD and the hidden wounds of war and who had dedicated 
themselves, with Chris's help, to transforming their mourning into 
mission to help others.
  It is no understatement that Chris had one of the toughest and most 
demanding job in my Boston office, certainly the most intense. He met 
so many at their most vulnerable and others still who were overcome by 
the deepest and most indescribable grief--and even anger. But it was 
Chris Wyman who remembered always that if Americans were sent somewhere 
in the world dodging bullets and bombs to protect our freedom, then 
there should be no limit to the government's commitment to do its part 
back home to support them and their families.
  For Chris, each day was measured not in minutes or hours but in phone 
calls--as many as 50 calls a day. Some were routine--soldiers or 
veterans needing absentee ballots, forms, or help applying for 
benefits. For Chris, those cases were the easiest the ones in which a 
highly placed phone call or a well-timed letter could be the lubricant 
to make the State and Federal bureacracy run more smoothly. But some of 
those calls were far from routine. Take just one that resulted in a 
special moment just about this time last year in Newton, MA, when 
Chris's intervention helped right a wrong inadvertently committed years 
before by the Federal Government. Thanks to Chris's hard work, I was 
able to present a Congressional Gold Medal to the family of 2LT James 
Calhoun, a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, who was killed in World 
War II. The Tuskegee Airmen had been awarded the medal collectively in 
2007, but Lieutenant Calhoun's daughter, Jean Calhoun Royster, was 
excluded from that ceremony. When Jean reached out to Chris and to my 
office, we intervened to help secure the medal in honor of her father. 
It was touching to see the pride Jean felt for her father when she held 
his medal in her very own hands, but more than that, it was inspiring 
to know that behind the scenes it was Chris's diligence that helped to 
make it happen.
  I also remember another special day Chris helped make possible--the 
day I pinned a Purple Heart on 22-year-old Sean Bannon of Winthrop, who 
was wounded in both legs in Iraq and spent 6 weeks recovering at Walter 
Reed. We held the ceremony at Fenway Park on Patriots Day in 2008. And 
the Red Sox surprised Sean by allowing him to throw out the first 
pitch, with No. 38, Curt Schilling, standing in as Sean's catcher. He 
wasn't on the field let alone on the mound that day, but Chris Wyman 
was the MVP of our team that day the unsung hero of a proper welcome 
home for a real military hero, Sean Bannon. That was a joyful day for 
the Bannon family and for all of us, but for Chris it was just one of 
the many ways he made a contribution. It was every day that Chris 
received calls from wives, husbands, and children worried about loved 
ones on Active Duty somewhere in the world or from veterans enduring 
life-threatening health conditions. They, too, needed real action, not 
just a promise to get back to them later. And whenever he got one of 
those calls, Chris would spring into action and stay at it until he got 
the answers and results that these brave Americans and their families 
deserved.
  Among these solemn duties were some that Chris rarely spoke about but 
which are seared into him forever. Again and again, he made personal 
visits to the homes of Gold Star families. He would simply show up to 
visit, to comfort, and to help out after families received the phone 
call that every military parent dreads the most. Chris

[[Page 16977]]

formed deep friendships with many of the families, friendships that 
will last a lifetime. While many quote Abraham Lincoln's words, Chris 
lived them--through his actions, not his words, he held sacred 
Lincoln's pledge at Gettysburg that our country will care for ``him who 
has borne the battle, and his widow and his orphan.'' And so Chris 
did--at wakes, at funerals, in military hospitals and veterans homes, 
in all these difficult circumstances and the difficult days and months 
and years that followed, Chris Wyman kept the faith.
  Chris did this for all veterans--in their spirit and many times in 
their memory. But he also joined a special fraternity the tight knit 
``Band of Brothers'' who served with me during Swiftboat duty in 
Vietnam. He came to them in the 1990s and never lost touch with any of 
them, extending to them, as he did for so many Massachusetts veterans, 
total dedication and commitment through hospital visits, weddings, and 
funerals. It was no surprise, then, that several years ago they made 
him an honorary member of their ``brotherhood,'' presenting him with a 
blue crew member shirt, exactly the same as the ones they wore so 
proudly whenever they were together.
  It seems fitting that Chris is retiring so close to Veterans Day--a 
day to honor America's veterans for their patriotism, their love of 
country, and their willingness to serve and to sacrifice because for 
these past nearly 18 years, for Chris Wyman, every day was Veterans 
Day. He is a shining example of service to those who have served.
  Mr. President, both Chris and I are proud to be Navy men, and in the 
Navy, we have a special term--``Bravo Zulu'' which means ``Well Done.'' 
So, as one old sailor to another, with a thank you for many years of 
loyalty and friendship, to Chris Wyman I say ``Bravo Zulu'' for a job 
well done.

                          ____________________