[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9767]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   70TH ANNIVERSARY OF D-DAY INVASION

  (Mrs. DAVIS of California asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mrs. DAVIS of California. Mr. Speaker, last week, on June 6, I had 
the honor of attending the 70th anniversary of the D-day invasion in 
France. What a humbling experience it was to be there. Countless graves 
marked the landscape where over 6,000 U.S. soldiers fought and died at 
the site of one of the most significant military operations in modern 
history.
  Looking back, it is incredible--incredible that an operation as vast 
and as complex as the Allied invasion of Normandy could ever succeed. 
Just about everything that could go wrong did. We faced setbacks at 
every turn, yet against all odds, our brave young men persevered.
  Speaking with D-day veterans from San Diego like Jack Port, Joe 
Reilly, Victor Kramer, and James Federhart, I was reminded that they 
were just kids in 1944, many of them still teenagers.
  I wish I could have shared it with my dad who served as a medic 
throughout the war, but like so many of his brothers in arms, he did 
not speak about his experience, and it is not hard to imagine why.
  Many of their comrades never made it home. Thousands of U.S. soldiers 
fought and died, so that the world might live in freedom and inherit 
peace.

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