[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5010]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     RECOGNIZING MEDAL OF HONOR DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, on Saturday the Nation 
celebrated Medal of Honor Day. This rarely celebrated holiday was 
designated by Congress in 1990 but only officially observed once, on 
March 25, 1991. I was pleased to see our most decorated war heroes 
honored last Friday during a ceremony at the White House.
  The Medal of Honor is the highest military honor our Nation can 
bestow. According to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, there 
have been 3,498 recipients, and 75 of those individuals are still 
living today.
  Just last year, I was able to recognize one of Pennsylvania's very 
own Medal of Honor recipients, late Army Specialist Ross McGinnis. I 
assisted in naming a post office in Knox, Clarion County, for 
Specialist McGinnis, who died in December 2006 in Iraq. Specialist 
McGinnis was a native son of Knox, Pennsylvania.
  While on patrol in eastern Baghdad on December 4, 2006, an 
unidentified insurgent positioned on a nearby rooftop threw a grenade 
into a Humvee carrying McGinnis and other troops. Specialist McGinnis 
threw his body on top of the grenade, absorbing all the fragments of 
the grenade with his own body and saving the lives of his fellow 
soldiers. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President 
George W. Bush in 2008.
  Mr. Speaker, another such hero, Foster Joseph Sayers, is from my 
hometown of Howard, Pennsylvania. He received the Medal of Honor for 
acts of bravery near Thionville, France, on November 12, 1944.
  During an attack on strong hostile forces entrenched on a hill, he 
fearlessly ran up the steep approach towards his objective and then set 
up a machine gun 20 yards from the enemy. Realizing it would be 
necessary to attract full attention of the enemy while his company 
crossed an open area and flanked the enemy, he picked up the gun, 
charged through withering machine-gun and rifle fire to the very edge 
of the emplacement. He killed 12 German soldiers with devastating 
close-range fire.
  He took up a position behind a log and engaged the hostile enemy from 
the flank in an heroic attempt to distract their attention while his 
comrades obtained their objective at the crest of the hill. He was 
killed by the very heavy concentration of return fire, but his fearless 
assault enabled his company to sweep the hill with minimum casualties, 
killing or capturing every enemy soldier on it.
  Private First Class Sayers' indomitable fighting spirit, 
aggressiveness, and supreme devotion to duty live on as an example of 
the highest traditions of the military service for which he was awarded 
the Medal of Honor.
  Another heroic Medal of Honor recipient from Pennsylvania's Fifth 
Congressional District is Private First Class Melvin L. Brown. Private 
First Class Brown earned the Medal of Honor for his bravery in the 
Korean war.
  During an attack on his platoon's perimeter of defense, Private First 
Class Brown took his position on a retaining wall approximately 50 feet 
high. The enemy, superior in number, started climbing the wall just as 
Brown's last round of ammunition was expended, and he was wounded by 
enemy fire. His citation said: ``Realizing the vital necessity for 
holding and without concern for his personal safety, though wounded and 
without his rifle, Brown continued to throw his few remaining hand 
grenades into the enemy, causing several casualties with each grenade. 
When his supply of grenades was depleted, his comrades from nearby 
foxholes commenced throwing grenades towards his position. On several 
occasions, the grenades were thrown short of his position. When this 
would occur, Brown would leave his position and retrieve the grenades, 
exposing himself to enemy rifle and machine-gun fire.''
  The enemy continued their climb, and Brown was able to knock 10 to 12 
enemy troops from the wall, which served as an inspiration to his 
comrades and delayed the attack and enabled his platoon to repel the 
enemy. Brown was seriously injured and then died during that action.
  Heroic acts for Pennsylvanians during times of war go back to the 
Civil War. The Medal of Honor, established by joint resolution of 
Congress on the 12th of July 1862, is awarded in the name of Congress 
to a person who, while a member of the armed services, distinguishes 
himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his 
life, above and beyond the call of duty.
  A large percentage of Medal of Honor recipients during this time were 
actually awarded for action involving flags. One such Medal of Honor 
recipient from my hometown was Civil War Corporal Franklin Hogan, a 
member of Company A, Pennsylvania 45th Infantry. His citation was 
awarded on October 1, 1864, for the capture of the battle flag of the 
6th Virginia Infantry.
  Mr. Speaker, there are more Medal of Honor recipients from 
Pennsylvania's Fifth Congressional District and throughout this proud 
Nation. Each one demonstrated personal bravery or self-sacrifice that 
warranted this extraordinary merit. On behalf of a grateful Nation, I 
salute all of our Medal of Honor recipients.

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