[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19819]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                HONORING THE LIFE OF CAPTAIN JOHN YATES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Loudermilk) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. LOUDERMILK. Mr. Speaker, I don't intend to take 30 minutes, but 
the time that I do spend is very important, because I want to honor a 
very, very special person.
  First of all, let me start off by wishing you a Merry Christmas. I 
say that because, as we are getting into the season, many of us are 
thinking about family and friends and spending Christmastime at home, 
which I hope to be able to do as well.
  Every Christmas season my thought goes back about 73 years ago. You 
see, my dad was a medic in World War II, and December 16, which will be 
just a few days from now, will be the 73rd anniversary of one of the 
largest, most significant battles of World War II: the Battle of the 
Bulge.
  My father was a medic in the Battle of the Bulge, and I still 
remember the stories he used to tell of the cold weather and the snow 
and how, when the Germans broke through the Siegfried Line, they 
decimated American forces--we lost thousands and thousands of troops in 
those few days--how the snow was just so heavy and so thick that many 
were trapped in their foxholes, unable to escape. Many retreated back 
to areas of safety and the lines behind.
  But I don't want to talk about my dad here today. I want to talk 
about someone else, a dear friend of mine, someone I got to serve in 
the Georgia Legislature with. It was another young Georgian from 
Spalding County who was a pilot in the Army Air Corps.
  Now, Captain John Yates was not what you may think of. Most people 
think of an Army Air Corps pilot flying a B-29 or a B-25 Mitchell. What 
John Yates flew was a small, single-engine Piper Cub aircraft. He was a 
liaison pilot.
  Now, most people aren't familiar with what a liaison pilot is, but 
they played a very crucial and critical role in the victory in Europe 
in World War II and even in the Pacific theater.
  You see, as a pilot, I have a lot of appreciation for someone who 
will fly a very small plane. I mean, I am a pretty tall guy. I don't 
fit in the cockpit of a Piper Cub very well.

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