[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4877]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING IRVING SMOLENS

  (Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Irving 
Smolens: a soldier, a father, a husband, an American hero. And I am 
very proud to call him my friend.
  Irving Smolens was a World War II veteran who survived D-Day, where 
he served with the U.S. Army 4th Infantry Division. He came home just 
short of his 21st birthday in 1945 to a country he loved deeply, and he 
helped build a community in Melrose, Massachusetts.
  Irving took his experiences from the darkest moments of our past and 
advocated for a better, more peaceful world. Up until he left us on 
Saturday at the age of 90, you could still catch up with Irving at the 
Melrose schools, where he would recount stories of the Allied invasion 
in World War II for hundreds of middle schoolers at our assemblies, and 
he taught thousands in our classrooms.
  He recently became a chevalier with the French Legion of Honor, and 
he was a regular at Democratic events and campaigns. He served as 
president of the Temple Beth Shalom in Melrose, and he was an avid jazz 
enthusiast and sports fan. He watched every one of the 19 innings of 
last week's Red Sox-Yankees game.
  He was quick to pen a letter to the Boston Globe and recently took to 
blogging in his late eighties and to social media. Not only did he 
comment on politics, but he helped reconnect veterans' families with 
their fathers' histories.
  This past fall, 70 years after Irving stepped onto the beaches of 
Normandy to fight the Nazis, he returned. This time he would be met by 
both the American President and the French President in recognition of 
his valor and patriotism. He was seen by a journalist, who said after 
the President had delivered a long speech, he was stopped by an old 
soldier who gave him a piece of his mind. When the journalist caught up 
with Irving and asked what he had to say to President Obama, Irving 
replied: ``I thanked him for keeping us out of war.''
  Our thoughts and prayers are with Irving and his family, especially 
his wife, Edith, and daughter, Karen. We are so proud to have known him 
and for his service.

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