[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9078-9079]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              REMEMBERING PRIVATE FIRST CLASS JOHN T. MARR

  Mr. BROWN of Massachusetts. Mr. President, on this day in 1777, the 
Second Continental Congress adopted the flag of the United States. At 
that time, American colonists were just 2 years into their long and 
bloody struggle for independence and only a year earlier had declared 
independence from the British throne. Since that time, our flag has 
been carried into countless battles and has been proudly worn on the 
uniforms of millions of American servicemen and women.
  I rise today to tell the story of one such American, US Army PFC John 
T. Marr of Dorchester, MA. Private Marr was mortally wounded in combat 
on a hill on the other side of the globe. The hill happened to be in 
Korea in 1953. It could have been so many other places where Americans 
fought and died: Bunker Hill in Boston, Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, 
the cliffs of Normandy, Kakazu Ridge on Okinawa, Hamburger Hill in 
Vietnam or the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan.
  Private First Class Marr could have been so many other people's 
husband, son or brother throughout our nation's history.
  John Marr, ``Jack'' to his family and friends, was among thousands of 
Massachusetts residents to serve our Nation in Korea and among the 
hundreds to die there. Korea has been referred to as the ``forgotten 
war.'' By the early 1950s, our Nation had grown war weary, having so 
recently endured a global war in which more than 400,000 American 
servicemen died and far more than a half million were wounded. Yet 
while the Greatest Generation returned from Europe, Africa, and the 
South Pacific to build modern America, hundreds of thousands of their 
younger brothers were fighting and dying on the Korean Peninsula. The 
Korean war was never forgotten by people like the Marr family of 
Dorchester who on a hot summer day in 1953 received word that their 
middle child had died in the service of his Nation.
  By all accounts, Jack Marr was a young man with a promising life 
ahead of him. He was an outstanding athlete, well-liked by all, newly 
married, and worked for his family's successful South Boston 
contracting business. Yet like millions before and after, Jack answered 
his Nation's call to serve.
  In Korea, Jack was communications chief of Company D, 179th Infantry 
Regiment of the 45th Infantry Division. On July 19, 1953, his unit came 
under heavy mortar attack, wounding several members who were caught in 
the open.

[[Page 9079]]

With no thought for his own safety, Jack Marr left the cover of his 
bunker to pull wounded comrades to safety and was mortally wounded by 
an exploding mortar round. Private First Class Marr was among the last 
Americans to die in the Korean war, and succumbed to his injuries just 
2 days before the Armistice went into effect. Jack left behind his wife 
Mary, loving parents, brothers Daniel, Jr. and Robert, and a sister 
Judith Marie.
  The Marr family will honor Jack this Flag Day by dedicating a 
flagpole on the grounds of their family business on D Street in South 
Boston. I join the Marr family in honoring the service and sacrifice of 
PFC John T. Marr and will close with words engraved on the plaque they 
will unveil today. ``This flagpole is dedicated to the courageous 
military service of John T. Marr. Jack answered the call to defend the 
people of South Korea. His sacrifice will forever be an example of 
hope, conviction and the unconquerable American spirit in the pursuit 
of freedom.''

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