[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18382]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               A TRIBUTE TO A GREAT AMERICAN, MIKE COATS

  (Mr. OLSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today wearing my space shuttle tie to 
honor my hero, my friend, Mike Coats. Tomorrow, Mike is retiring as 
Director of the Johnson Space Center of Houston.
  Mike and I have a few things in common. We both are naval aviators 
who love Coach Bill Krueger and Clear Lake High School basketball. But 
Mike has done things I only dream of. He logged over 463 hours in space 
on three space shuttle missions. Most importantly, he fought to keep 
the Johnson Space Center the home of U.S. dominance in human 
spaceflight despite the retirement of the space shuttle and the 
cancellation of the Constellation program. When I grow up, I want to be 
Mike Coats.
  Bravo Zulu, Mike. May you, Diane, your daughter, your son, and those 
two beautiful granddaughters, those twins, always have fair winds and 
following seas.

                          ____________________