[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 604]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       CHESTER A. ``CHET'' FOULKE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Nevada (Mr. Heck) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HECK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a great man, Chester A. 
``Chet'' Foulke.
  Chet was a member of the Greatest Generation, born on July 19, 1922, 
and God called him home on December 31, 2011.
  Chet grew up in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, during the Great Depression 
of the 1930s. The hard times forced him to leave school after the 10th 
grade and to work in an aircraft plant near Philadelphia before the 
United States became involved in World War II.
  He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in September of 1943 
and attended recruit training at Parris Island, South Carolina, and 
advanced training at Camp Pendleton, California, and Camp Tarawa, 
Hawaii, in preparation for one of the war's toughest battles, Iwo Jima.
  As a demolition expert with Company C of the 5th Engineering 
Battalion, Chet fought on the front lines for 36 days. ``It was an 
awful battle the way we got slaughtered,'' he said during a 2006 
interview. ``Some days you would make it 100 or 200 yards, some days 
500 yards.'' Chet was at Mount Suribachi when the first U.S. flag went 
up. ``I was standing there looking up when that flag went up and tears 
ran down my face,'' he said in another interview. ``I was just so happy 
to see that flag that I knew they were not going to push us off or do 
away with us. I felt so happy.''
  When the war ended, he was sent to Japan for 7 months of occupational 
duty before returning to the United States where he received his 
discharge from the Marine Corps in May of 1946 as a corporal.
  He became a Nevadan when he moved to Las Vegas in 1972. In 1986, Chet 
helped found the Greater Nevada Detachment, No. 186, of the Marine 
Corps League where he served as commandant from 1992-1995 and then as 
chaplain for several years thereafter. He was greatly admired by 
members of the Marine Corps League for his bravery at Iwo Jima and his 
involvement in the Marine Corps League.
  Mr. Foulke is survived by his wife of 29 years, Martha; his daughter, 
Mary; her husband, Ed; three stepsons, David, William and Jeffery; and 
several nieces and nephews. He will be greatly missed by all. Semper 
Fi.

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