[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9997-9998]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         HONORING TWO GREAT MEN

  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I want to join our Republican leader in 
recognizing the birthday of the 41st President of the United States, 
George H.W. Bush. It is possible that nobody ever

[[Page 9998]]

came to the Presidency with a preparation that exceeded his in both 
diplomacy--he served as the first U.S. emissary to China in those 
decades and he served as the head of the CIA. He served as Vice 
President.
  I was just reading a few days ago another and new retelling of what 
happened as the Soviet bloc fell apart--the importance of both 
President Reagan and President Bush, who brought his unique background 
to that time when it was so unpredictable what might happen. Frankly, 
the results turned out to be carefully managed by this President as the 
Berlin Wall fell, as these countries came together, and President 
Bush's skills were in great evidence, as they were when the coalition 
was put together to push back what the Iraqis had done in Kuwait.
  But probably his greatest example to all of us is an example of a man 
of kindness and generosity--some would say an almost too forgiving 
nature to have risen in politics as he did. But on his 90th birthday it 
is a good time for Americans to reflect about his service to the 
country. His wife's birthday was just a few days ago, and on her 
birthday we also want to think about their family and what their family 
has meant to the country.
  My understanding is that President Bush has announced that he intends 
to jump out of an airplane for the third decade in a row as he did on 
his 70th birthday and 80th birthday, and will do on this 90th birthday. 
I am not sure the judgment to do that is quite as good as the judgment 
he showed in managing the future of the country. But if you are 90, you 
only get to be 90 once, and I am sure he is the only 90-year-old 
President to have jumped out of an airplane in 3 different decades. We 
appreciate the service of George H.W. Bush to his country, from signing 
up to be the youngest pilot in World War II until the service that he 
continues to provide as a former President of the United States.
  I was thinking about him and the other World War II veterans as we 
see them leave us as heads of families, as examples we could turn to, 
and of the thought of another veteran whom one of my colleagues was 
mentioning just a few days ago, Senator Moran's father Raymond Moran.
  Raymond Moran died on D-day at 98 years old. Senator Moran and I have 
been good friends for a long time. I know we speak on this floor in the 
Senate about ``my good friend, our long time relationship.'' This is a 
case where we really have been close friends. We have been so close 
that in the couple of decades now that we have known each other, I have 
heard a lot about Jerry Moran's father and his mother.
  Jerry was lucky enough to have both of his parents until just a 
couple of years ago, and his mom and dad were together until just a 
couple of years ago. Jerry's father was a staff sergeant in North 
Africa and in Italy. He was not part of the D-day invasion, even though 
his death on June 6, the 70th Anniversary of D-day, is a significant 
day for all the veterans of that conflict.
  The stories I heard about Senator Moran's father were the stories 
that you would think a man from Plainville, KS, would be part of--
quiet, unassuming, church-going, passing along the values that he stood 
for to his family, and working hard and believing in some way that 
somehow his children could do anything they wanted to do. Then he had 
the opportunity to see his son in the Congress of the United States 
representing that huge district in western Kansas and then in the 
Senate of the United States.
  These two stories are very different--the stories of George H.W. Bush 
and Raymond Moran. But the lives that these two men led are very 
similar in the values that they stood for and the values of their 
generation--the generation that Tom Brokaw called ``the greatest 
generation.'' These are fundamental and foundational values to what we 
are all about as a nation.

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