[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6369]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               HONORING SERGEANT 1ST CLASS JAMES PRIESTAP

  (Mr. BENISHEK asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to announce that the circle 
drive of the Oscar G. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iron 
Mountain, Michigan, will be named after local son and Iraq War veteran, 
Sergeant 1st Class James Priestap.
  Sergeant Priestap graduated from North Dickinson High School in 1985 
before attending Ferris State University and Northern Michigan 
University and joining the U.S. Navy as a rescue swimmer. Sergeant 
Priestap also served as a police officer at the Oscar G. Johnson VA 
Medical Center, where I worked as a physician. While bravely defending 
his Nation in Iraq, Sergeant Priestap was killed in action on 
Thanksgiving Day 2006.
  The entire Dickinson community came together to memorialize Sergeant 
Priestap at the VA facility where he guarded our veterans, and I am 
honored today to have helped him fight for this distinction over the 
past 2 years.
  This memorial represents a small but important gesture of gratitude, 
not only for Sergeant Priestap's sacrifice but for his lifelong pursuit 
of selfless service to others. I'm very pleased that all visitors to 
the world-class VA hospital in Iron Mountain will soon be able to 
remember a true hero from northern Michigan who laid down his life so 
that others could live in freedom.

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