[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 18003]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              VETERANS DAY

  Mr. REID. Madam President, I share the Republican leader's hope that 
we can conclude the Military Construction-VA bill later this morning. I 
commend the managers of that legislation for doing a good job. There is 
no Senator I admire more than Jon Tester from Montana, and he has been 
ably leading the direction of this bill.
  I join with the Republican leader as we honor our veterans tomorrow 
on Veterans Day.
  Madam President, I just want to take a brief minute to talk about a 
veteran, whom I look to with admiration.
  Today the chaplain gave a prayer saying that he prayed for veterans 
who have already left us and those veterans who are still alive.
  My town is Searchlight, NV, a little tiny town with not a lot of 
people in it. It has been that way for a long time. For a brief period 
Searchlight was bigger than Las Vegas. It had 3,000 people there.
  During World War II a young man who was already married and had 
children went to a movie with his wife in Las Vegas. He came out of the 
movies and told his wife: I think I have to join. He didn't have to, 
but he felt he had to.
  So this young man joined the U.S. Army Air Corps, which is now the 
U.S. Air Force. It was a huge sacrifice for him and his family. He 
traveled with his wife and children to Georgia where he did his 
training and then went to the European theater as a pilot.
  He served gallantly, bombing, strafing, and all the other things you 
did in the air in World War II. He had been through 68 different 
missions. He was through. But as happens sometimes in life, things 
develop that change your life. He volunteered for one more flight 
because one of the other pilots was unable to go.
  On his 69th flight, somewhere over Belgium, Bill Nellis, the boy from 
Searchlight, was shot down. He is still there. That is where his grave 
is.
  I know his family. I know his son Gary and his Aunt Thelma, whom I 
knew in Searchlight.
  This good man was so gallant in the eyes of people from Nevada that a 
previous congressional delegation, in conjunction with the President of 
the United States, decided it would be appropriate to name the Las 
Vegas Gunnery School, as it was called at that time, Nellis Air Force 
Base.
  Today Nellis Air Force Base, named after this man from Searchlight, 
is the finest Air Force fighter training facility in the world. 
Thousands and thousands of people serve there.
  It was originally on the outskirts of Las Vegas. Now it is in Las 
Vegas in a very populated area. No one complains about it. We are so 
proud of that Air Force base. It is a huge facility that has the finest 
gunnery range for Air Force pilots in the world. We have exercises 
there every year where pilots from all over the world bring their own 
aircraft from Australia, Great Britain, and other places to train 
there.
  We in Nevada are very proud of Nellis Air Force Base, as is the 
entire military complex in the United States. It is a wonderful 
facility. Tomorrow is the day we honor Bill Nellis and the other 
gallant people who have served and are serving in the U.S. military.
  Would the Chair announce the business this morning.

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