[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 8135-8136]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    GREAT FALLS MEMORIAL DAY SERVICE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 5, 2013

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, on Memorial Day I had the privilege of 
attending a ceremony in Great Falls, Virginia, honoring those who have 
fought for our great Nation.
  I was joined at the service with dozens of Great Falls residents, 
along with other community leaders, to pay tribute to the 25 men and 
women of Great Falls who died in battle or from attacks on America.
  The service began with a friendly welcome from Mr. Bruce Ellis Fein, 
a member of Friends of the Great Falls Freedom Memorial. In 2002, 
Friends of the Great Falls Freedom Memorial was created with the goal 
of building a memorial site in Great Falls dedicated to those residents 
who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.
  The highlight of the service was the keynote speech by Lt. Gen. 
Norman H. Smith who served our country in the Marine Corps for over 35 
years. In his address, Lt. Gen. Smith discussed his recent trip to the 
island of Iwo Jima, specifically, his visit to Mt. Suribachi with 
several surviving veterans of the Battle of Iwo Jima.
  Lt. Gen. Smith has had an established military career and has been 
awarded numerous decorations for his service. He now serves as 
president of the Iwo Jima Association of America and currently resides 
in my congressional district in Winchester, Virginia.
  I submit Lt. Gen. Smith's remarks from the Great Falls Memorial Day 
Service and a recent news article from the Great Falls Connection.

     Address by Lieutenant General Norman H. Smith, USMC (Ret) of 
Winchester, Virginia at the Memorial Day 2013, the Great Falls Freedom 
                                Memorial

       Good Morning.
       I'm going to take a bit of keynote speaker's prerogative to 
     point out one special guest for today's service, and he is 
     Marine Tommy Cox, a veteran of the Iwo Jima campaign of World 
     War 2.
       I'm honored to speak to you this morning on this particular 
     day, in this particular place, which is dedicated to those 
     residents who have given their lives in the cause of freedom.
       I'm a Marine, but it is my great privilege to be here today 
     to represent all of our Armed forces. All of them contribute 
     mightily to the security of our nation. It is an even greater 
     honor, on this Memorial Day 2013, to speak about the tens of 
     thousands of our fellow citizens who have given their lives 
     in the defense of our country, its people, and its 
     principles.
       For me, Memorial Day came early this year, in mid-March on 
     the island of Iwo Jima. I went there with a group that 
     included military historians, writers, students from the 
     Young Marines organization and, first and foremost, 14 
     veterans of the battle of Iwo Jima and the Pacific campaign 
     of World War 2.
       These men who are now in their late 80's and early 90's 
     were, most of them, teenagers in February of 1945, when the 
     battle began. The ultimate goal of the Iwo Jima campaign was 
     to gain ever closer access to the Japanese home islands in 
     the event that an invasion of Japan would be necessary in 
     order to end the long, bloody war.
       Iwo Jima in 1945 was a barren volcanic island covered with 
     ash and stone. There was nowhere to take cover, no trees, 
     nowhere even to be able to dig a fighting hole, for the soil 
     was ashy sand that acquired a name of its own: the black 
     sands of Iwo Jima.
       Beneath this forbidding surface lay noxious sulphur beds 
     that stank, and many miles of tunnels, caves and reinforced 
     fighting positions crammed with small arms, machine guns, 
     mortars and artillery pieces. The Japanese defenders, well 
     prepared for an assault on the island, intended to inflict 
     massive casualties on their enemies. They did.
       Sixty-eight years later, the 14 Iwo Jima vets I traveled 
     with returned to the site of a savage battle that went on 
     without pause and without quarter, on either side, for 36 
     days. They went back to remember their own experiences and to 
     keep alive the sacrifices they witnessed. Six thousand eight 
     hundred Marines died during the 36-day battle. 22,000 were 
     wounded. More than 20,000 Japanese were killed. In February 
     1945 the Iwo Jima veterans of today were fighting for their 
     lives and the lives of their brother Marines and sailors. 
     They were fighting, too, for the lives of many Army Air Corps 
     crewmen who would have died were it not for the emergency 
     landing field built by Seabees while the battle still raged. 
     It is estimated that more than 20,000 U.S. airmen were saved 
     by landing their battle damaged B-29s and B-24s as they 
     returned from bombing raids over Japan. All the American 
     Armed Forces contributed to the victory on Iwo: the Army, 
     Navy, Navy Air, the Army Air Corps, the Marine Corps, the 
     Coast Guard and the often forgotten Merchant Marine.
       The almost accidental photograph of the flag raising on Mt. 
     Suribachi became an iconic image of American valor. Today, 
     Mt. Suribachi is the site of a very different annual 
     ceremony, a ceremony that none of the 14 returning veterans 
     could have believed possible in 1945. This, the annual 
     Reunion of Honor, is attended by American and Japanese alike, 
     who meet every year to commemorate the historic battle and 
     the post war U.S.-Japanese alliance.
       The Reunion of Honor began in 1995, when the Iwo Jima 
     Association of America joined with the Iwo Jima Association 
     of Japan in order to honor warriors on both sides who died 
     for their respective countries on that desolate island, 600 
     miles from Japan. This memorial service is not about lauding 
     the victors nor humiliating the vanquished. Nor does it 
     attempt to glorify war. Far from it. Iwo Jima was a killing 
     ground and, like our own Civil War battlefields in the 
     Shenandoah Valley and other places, it is also hallowed 
     ground where the remains of the missing still lie. To the 
     Japanese families of soldiers whose bodies were never 
     recovered, it is an annual pilgrimage undertaken to honor 
     their ancestors.
       This year the hour-long service took place in perfect 
     weather, on an island that looks far different from the 
     hellish place it was 68 years ago. What was black sand and 
     scarred rock is now green with scrub trees and shrubs. Dirt 
     roads have been paved, memorial markers have been placed. The 
     beaches,

[[Page 8136]]

     however, are still black sand. Japanese and American military 
     and governmental officials spoke during the service and 
     wreaths were laid on the memorial stone markers. A military 
     band played, a band composed of both American and Japanese 
     musicians.
       Following the ceremony the American group boarded mini-vans 
     for the trip up the serpentine road to the top of Mt. 
     Suribachi. During the battle, this mountain--about the height 
     of the Washington Monument--was honeycombed with gun 
     emplacements that rained deadly fire on the U.S. forces. On 
     the third day of the invasion, elements of the 28th Marine 
     Regiment made a tortuous and deadly ascent up the steep side 
     of the mountain, to its peak. It was here that the now famous 
     flag raising took place. The photo taken was used to create 
     the magnificent bronze monument in Arlington Cemetery: the 
     Marine Corps War Memorial.
       Atop Suribachi the Iwo vets and others visited the unit 
     memorials placed there. Photos were taken and more stories 
     from the vets were forthcoming as they gazed down upon the 
     landing beaches and the now peaceful landscape of Iwo Jima.
       As we stood on Mt. Suribachi some of the vets talked about 
     their recollections of the battle . . . and the rest of us 
     listened.
       Donald Graves is 87. He was 18 then. He remembered having 
     steak for breakfast at 0700 on the day he went ashore in the 
     3d wave. Once on the black beach he lay with his face in the 
     sand, very scared. He told me he was clinging to a ledge on 
     Mt. Suribachi with his flamethrower, just a few feet from 
     where the flag was raised.
       Bill Montgomery is 89. In 1945 he was not long out of high 
     school. On Iwo Jima he was the only survivor of his small 
     unit. When he saw the flag raised on Suribachi, he thought it 
     was all over . . . but the battle went on for more than a 
     month. He told me that he had not wanted to revisit the scene 
     of so much tragedy, but decided to come now to remember, and 
     to honor his fallen brother Marines.
       Lieutenant General Larry Snowden, 92, a native Virginian, 
     was a young company commander on Iwo Jima. When he talks 
     about the battle he never fails to remember the men he lost 
     there. To this day he holds them close in loving memory of 
     their courage and honor.
       In today's world, 68 years is a very long time. To the 
     younger generations, it may seem like an eternity. In the 68 
     years since the battle of Iwo Jima, much has happened that we 
     might prefer to forget. The young men who survived the 
     battle, which was after all, but one of countless such 
     battles in the European and Pacific Theaters of World War 2, 
     may have wanted nothing more than merciful forgetfulness . . 
     . and who could blame them?
       The men I stood with on Suribachi have not forgotten. They 
     spoke with quiet dignity about those who died there. They 
     grieve for them still. The stakes during the dark days of any 
     war are so high . . . so high. Those who make the greatest 
     sacrifice have no tomorrows. They have given them to us. For 
     those who have given their lives, we must and will be strong, 
     be faithful, be free. To them we owe all that we now possess. 
     Our duty is clear; we will never forget our Nation's debt of 
     gratitude to those who died in the defense of our liberties.
       Thank you.
                                  ____


            [From the Great Falls Connection, May 28, 2013]

                     Great Falls Marks Memorial Day

                           (By Alex McVeigh)

       Retired Lt. Gen. Norman H. Smith was commissioned into the 
     United States Marine Corps in December 1955, more than 10 
     years after the Battle of Iwo Jima. But 68 years later, he 
     accompanied 14 surviving veterans to the Japanese island, and 
     he was struck by the stories he heard.
       ``As we stood on Mount Suribachi, some of the vets talked 
     about their recollections of the battle. Donald Graves, 87, 
     was 18 then. He remembered having steak for breakfast on the 
     day he went ashore third wave. Once on the black beach, he 
     lay with his face on the sand, very scared. He told me he was 
     clinging to a ledge on Mount Suribachi with his flamethrower, 
     just a few feet from where the [American] flag was raised,'' 
     Smith said. ``Bill Montgomery, 89, was not long out of high 
     school. On Iwo Jima he was the only survivor of his small 
     unit. When he saw the flag raised on Suribachi, he thought 
     the battle was over, but instead it raged on for more than a 
     month. He told me he had not wanted to revisit the scene of 
     so much tragedy, but decided to come to remember and honor 
     his fellow Marine brothers.''
       Smith was the guest speaker at the Great Falls Freedom 
     Memorial's Memorial Day ceremony Monday, May 27. One Iwo Jima 
     veteran was present at the ceremony. Tommy Cox of McLean was 
     a member of the 5th Marine Division, 28th Regiment, and 
     witnessed the famous raising of the American flag on Mount 
     Suribachi.
       Dozens of residents gathered at the memorial to pay tribute 
     to the 25 men and women of Great Falls who died in battle or 
     from attacks on America, as well as the thousands of 
     Americans who had what Abraham Lincoln called ``laid so 
     costly a sacrifice on the altar of freedom.''
       After the names were read, scouts from Boy Scout Troop 55 
     raised the flags at the memorial from half-mast.
       ``According to the Flag Code, flags should fly at half 
     staff until midday, to mourn the sacrifices of the past,'' 
     said Bruce Ellis Fein of the Friends of the Great Falls 
     Freedom Memorial. ``The flags should be raised at midday to 
     full staff to celebrate the future that those sacrifices have 
     made possible.''
       After the ceremony, Del. Barbara Comstock (R-34) presented 
     the family of Tony Blankley, a Great Falls resident and 
     member of the Friends of the Great Falls Freedom Memorial who 
     passed away in January 2012.
       Blankley was a press secretary for Newt Gingrich while he 
     was Speaker of the House, the editorial page editor for The 
     Washington Times and a regular panelist on The McLaughlin 
     Group. He was also a prosecutor with the California attorney 
     general's office and even briefly a child actor, appearing in 
     Humphrey Bogart's last film, ``The Harder They Fall.''
       ``It's fitting that we honor Tony today, because he and 
     [his wife] Linda were very committed to the military, and 
     were so involved in setting up this memorial, and Linda 
     continues that legacy today,'' Comstock said. ``Tony was 
     truly a Renaissance man. He led such a rich, interesting and 
     well-led life, and he was well respected by all his friends 
     and colleagues, which many of us here are proud to call 
     ourselves.''
       Blankley's wife Linda Davis, her mother and their daughter 
     Anna accepted the resolution awarded by Comstock. Davis is 
     still active with many military causes, and spent last 
     weekend volunteering with the Tragedy Assistance Program for 
     Survivors.
       ``I'm so thankful for this tremendous honor, and I know 
     Tony would be very humbled by it as well,'' she said.
       Smith said in his concluding remarks that though many of 
     the men and women of the armed forces may wish to forget the 
     tragedies, injuries and losses they have endured in service 
     of country, ``Those who have made the greatest sacrifice have 
     no tomorrows,'' he said. ``They have given them to us, and 
     for those who have given their lives, we must be strong, we 
     will be faithful and we will be free.''

                          ____________________