[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 17040-17041]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      VALLEY'S FIRST HONOR FLIGHT

  (Mr. COSTA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1

[[Page 17041]]

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on behalf of our 
valley's first Honor Flight.
  Recently, my colleagues, Representatives Valadao and Nunes, and I 
honored the service of San Joaquin Valley veterans--as Tom Brokaw 
noted, perhaps America's Greatest Generation. These 69 men took off 
from Fresno and landed here in our Nation's Capital to see the 
monuments to their service to our country, most of them for the first 
time. In their youth, these men bravely but humbly answered their 
Nation's call.
  Decades later, our first San Joaquin Valley Honor Flight came to 
Washington, where they witnessed the changing of the guard and 
remembered those of their fellow soldiers who did not make it home.
  I also want to thank Congressmen Hall and Dingell, who shared stories 
with them.
  This forever grateful Nation is better for the men's sacrifices and 
the lives they led when they returned home to their farms, their 
storefronts, and their practices throughout the Valley to build a 
better life for themselves and our Nation.
  I want to thank you for allowing us to share their experience and to 
show our gratitude for a debt which we can never fully repay.

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