[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15584-15586]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1350
             PRIVATE FIRST CLASS VICTOR A. DEW POST OFFICE

  Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill 
(H.R. 3892) to designate the facility of the United States Postal 
Service located at 8771 Auburn Folsom Road in Roseville, California, as 
the ``Private First Class Victor A. Dew Post Office,'' as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 3892

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. LANCE CORPORAL VICTOR A. DEW POST OFFICE.

       (a) Designation.--The facility of the United States Postal 
     Service located at 8771 Auburn Folsom Road in Roseville, 
     California, shall be known and designated as the ``Lance 
     Corporal Victor A. Dew Post Office''.
       (b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, 
     document, paper, or other record of the United States to the 
     facility referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed to

[[Page 15585]]

     be a reference to the ``Lance Corporal Victor A. Dew Post 
     Office''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Arizona (Mr. Gosar) and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Altmire) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arizona.
  Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.


                             General Leave

  Mr. GOSAR. I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 
legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Arizona?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3892, introduced by the gentleman from 
California (Mr. McClintock), would designate the facility of the United 
States Postal Service located at 8771 Auburn Folsom Road in Roseville, 
California, as the Lance Corporal Victor A. Dew Post Office. The bill 
is cosponsored by the entire California State delegation and was 
favorably reported by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 
on February 7.
  Mr. Speaker, it is altogether fitting and proper that we name this 
post office in Roseville, California, for Marine Corps Lance Corporal 
Dew, a true American hero who gave his life courageously defending our 
freedom.
  Mr. Speaker, Lance Corporal Dew and all of our brave and courageous 
fighting men and women are true heroes. There is no way a grateful 
Nation can adequately express our thanks to those who serve. However, 
naming this post office after Lance Corporal Dew is a small, but 
fitting, gesture to the brave men and women who are the reason that 
this country is free.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in strong support of 
this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. ALTMIRE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues in urging the passage of H.R. 3892, 
to rename the United States Post Office in Roseville, California, in 
honor of Lance Corporal Victor A. Dew.
  Corporal Dew seemed to always have a special place in his heart for 
the United States Marine Corps since he was a young boy growing up in 
Granite Bay, California. After enlisting with the Marines in 2009, 
Victor chose the infantry. He wanted to be on the front line, making a 
difference to protect his country.
  After completing recruit training, he joined the Third Battalion, 
Fifth Marine Regiment, First Marine Division, Marine Expeditionary 
Force, as an anti-tank assaultman. During his first tour of duty in 
Afghanistan while conducting combat operations in the Helmand province 
on October 13, 2010, Lance Corporal Dew and three other marines from 
his battalion were killed in action by an improvised explosive device.
  Lance Corporal Dew's loyal devotion to duty reflects great credit 
upon himself and was in keeping with the highest traditions of the 
United States Marine Corps. He leaves behind his parents, his brother 
Kyle, his fiancee, and a whole host of family and friends who continue 
to miss him dearly.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of H.R. 3892 in honor of the service and 
sacrifice of Lance Corporal Victor A. Dew, and I reserve the balance of 
my time.
  Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I would now like to yield as much time as he 
may consume to my distinguished colleague from the State of California, 
the sponsor of this legislation, Mr. McClintock.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. I thank my friend for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I never met Victor Dew, but I feel that I've gotten to 
know him since the day that he came home to Granite Bay to be laid to 
rest in a hero's grave in the midst of his family, his friends and 
neighbors, his community, and his comrades in arms.
  That day, I discovered that his next-door neighbor is a longtime 
acquaintance of mine. He had watched this young man grow up, and he was 
absolutely devastated. In his bitter sorrow, he represented the anguish 
of an entire community that had watched Victor Dew grow up to be an 
always good-natured, always helpful, always pleasant lad who everybody 
knew was destined to do great things.
  That same day, I met Victor Dew's younger brother, Kyle, and I think 
I got a fleeting glimpse of Vic in his little brother. Kyle was seated 
at a table with a group of his grade-school friends. When I offered my 
condolences, one of his friends said, We came to cheer him up and 
instead he's cheering us up.
  That day, I also met Victor Dew's parents, Patty and Tom Schumacher, 
whose intense pride in their son fused with inexpressible sorrow into a 
transcendent dignity that I cannot put into words. Lincoln perhaps came 
closest in his famous letter to Mrs. Bixby when he wrote of laying ``so 
costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.''
  I've gotten to know Victor's parents in the more than 2 years since 
that costly sacrifice. I see them at the funerals of other fallen 
heroes, offering comfort to other bereaved families in a way I think 
that only those who have gone through such a loss can truly understand. 
I frankly cannot begin to understand what they've gone through and 
continue to go through every day. Whenever I try to imagine myself in 
their shoes, my mind recoils. I can only marvel at the strength that 
they summon.
  Time does not heal all wounds. For these Gold Star families, every 
day is Memorial Day; and every day their grief is just as real as when 
the casualty officer appeared at their threshold.
  At a Gold Star dinner several years ago, I confided to our hosts that 
I still didn't know what to say to these families. She smiled and said, 
Just ask them about their sons.
  So let me tell you a little bit about what I know of Victor Dew. 
Everybody who knew him always began with the same thing: Vic was one of 
those sunny personalities who always lifted the spirits of everyone 
around them. They'd be feeling down, and Victor would lift them up. I 
have no doubt Kyle got that quality from his older brother.
  Victor attended Granite Bay High School where he played on the high 
school football team. His real passion, though, was martial arts, in 
which he ultimately achieved a double black belt in jujitsu. His 
jujitsu teacher, Clint LeMay, told the Los Angeles Times:

       When I met him, he was like a 30-year-old man walking 
     around in a 13-year-old's body. He was wise beyond his years 
     and knew how to deal with all kinds of people.

  In high school, he met a remarkable young lady by the name of 
Courtney Gold. They both went on to attend Sierra College, and that's 
when they began dating.
  Victor had great plans. He had grown up dreaming of becoming a 
marine. When he was 12 years old, he had hung a Marine Corps flag over 
his bed. Every morning after that, he woke up under that flag and the 
proud words emblazoned on it: Semper Fidelis.
  He steeped himself in military history. He was fully aware of the 
mortal dangers he would face; yet in the summer of 2009, he 
enthusiastically enlisted. When Courtney asked him why, he said, It's 
my dream. I feel like I need to do this.
  One of his comrades put it this way:

       Victor lived every day with a purpose like it was his last. 
     He always had a joke to tell you or a way to make your day 
     better. He would have tough days and instead of being 
     negative, he would say, This is the kind of stuff I live for.

  Well, he had everything to live for. Before shipping out, he brought 
Courtney to one of his favorite places in the world, Disneyland, where 
he asked her to be his wife. They were to be married when he returned. 
In the Marines, he was offered a posting to a ceremonial position in 
the Presidential detail right here in Washington, but he turned it 
down. He believed his duty and his destiny was to keep the fight away 
from our shores, away from his family and his country; and so he chose 
combat even when he had been offered safe and honorable service at 
home.
  Instead of the prestigious Presidential detail he had been offered, 
Victor Dew chose to become one of the

[[Page 15586]]

boys of 3/5: Third Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment of the First Marine 
Division. He deployed to combat duty in Afghanistan on September 25, 
2010. Less than 3 weeks later, on October 13, Lance Corporal Victor 
Dew, age 20, died from his wounds after his column was ambushed and an 
explosive device destroyed his vehicle. Lost with him were three other 
fallen heroes.
  The next week, a black hearse with the Marine Corps emblem brought 
him home to Granite Bay and to a hallowed grave. Courtney had already 
bought her wedding dress in anticipation of a far happier homecoming. 
The day before Victor's funeral, she put it on, she had a wedding 
photographer take her portrait, and she placed that photo in Victor's 
casket. And then he was laid to rest with all of the honors we accord 
to our heroes: posthumous medals and a promotion, full military honors, 
a flag given to the grieving mother on behalf of a grateful Nation.
  777 days have passed since that awful day in Helmand province. In 
those 777 days, Victor Dew might have come safely home, he would have 
married Courtney Gold, they might have started a family by now, and he 
would be well embarked on a long and happy life and a promising career.
  As painful as it is to reflect on what might have been, it's 
important that we do so because in that pain is the measure of how much 
these young men gave up and how much their families grieve for them. 
They won't grow old to enjoy the blessings of liberty they died to 
secure for our country and for a country half a world away.

                              {time}  1400

  A few years ago, I had the honor to visit members of the Third United 
States Infantry Old Guard, who tend the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers at 
Arlington Cemetery. Tourists will often watch them on warm spring days, 
meticulously dressed and painstakingly drilled, honoring the memory of 
these soldiers. Tourists don't often show up during hurricanes or in 
driving snowstorms or at 2 a.m. in sleet and hail, but the Old Guard 
does. They commit 2 years of their lives to this service, under the 
strictest of conditions. I asked a young sergeant, Why? Why do you do 
this? He said, Because, sir, we want to demonstrate to our fellow 
Americans that we will never forget.
  Victor Dew will not be forgotten. His family will see to that. His 
friends and neighbors will see to that. His marine brothers will see to 
that. And his country will see to that. Today, the United States House 
of Representatives considers legislation to name the post office in 
Victor Dew's hometown of Granite Bay in his honor, as a simple token of 
that commitment.
  All things mortal will pass. Someday this post office will be gone. 
Someday we will all be gone. But the selfless deeds and quiet 
patriotism of young men like Victor Dew are recorded, not in plaques 
and buildings and monuments, but, rather, in the eternal and 
indestructible archives of time itself. They will not tarnish or fade. 
They will stand for the ages as a testament to the value of liberty, 
the character of those who step forth to defend it, and as a most 
profound lesson of the true meaning of the words that Victor Dew 
awakened under from the time that he was 12 and that he now sleeps 
under for all eternity: Semper Fidelis.
  Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, having no further requests for time, I yield 
back the balance of my time.
  Mr. ALTMIRE. Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support the passage 
of H.R. 3892, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Gosar) that the House suspend the rules and 
pass the bill, H.R. 3892, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  The title of the bill was amended so as to read: ``A bill to 
designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 
8771 Auburn Folsom Road in Roseville, California, as the `Lance 
Corporal Victor A. Dew Post Office'.''.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________