Duncan Hunter

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I think it's appropriate that I follow the remarks of my great friend Silvestre Reyes, who was a great veteran of Vietnam and who was a wonderful leader, I think the best leader in the history of the Border Patrol, and who is a great Member of this body, but he is a gentleman who has been to Iraq many times and to Afghanistan many times. Mr. Speaker, I take the well to comment on an event that occurred in San Diego, and that is regarding Sergeant Rafael Peralta, who was killed on November 14, 2004 in the now famous battle of Fallujah. He was killed, and absorbed the blast by an enemy grenade when, during house-to-house fighting, he was thrown into a small room while he and three other marines were working their way through this series of fire fights. According to the eyewitnesses and to the citation that he received, he pulled that grenade to his body and absorbed the full concussion and the full explosive power of that grenade on his own body and, thereby, saved his fellow marines. Now it has just been announced that he was awarded the Navy Cross, the second highest award for heroism, but not the Medal of Honor. Mr. Speaker, the last person who did that same act, in fact, who was a marine and who did that incredible act of sacrifice in Anbar province, was Corporal Jason Dunham of Scio, New York. He was given the Medal of Honor--awarded it by President Bush in the White House--for falling on a grenade, for taking the shock and the deadly power of that grenade, thereby saving his colleagues. That is the standard that we have traditionally placed and the metric that we have traditionally placed on this act of heroism of a soldier or of a marine who falls on a grenade or who pulls a grenade under him when it's in close proximity to his buddies, knowing full well that that grenade will most likely kill him but making that split-second decision to give his life for his colleagues and for his country. Sergeant Rafael Peralta made that decision. Mr. Speaker, it appears to me that he should have been awarded the same award that Jason Dunham and many before him have been awarded in Vietnam--the same theater that Mr. Reyes fought in--in Korea, in World War II. Where we have recognized that standard of a soldier or of a marine who falls on a grenade or who pulls it to him to save his colleagues, we have traditionally recognized that act of heroism, that act of sacrifice with the Medal of Honor. So, Mr. Speaker, I intend to ask the President--and I hope a number of other people join me to ask the President--to review this award and to award to Rafael Peralta, posthumously, the same award that we awarded just a few months ago to Corporal Jason Dunham.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Could I be recognized for 1 minute and then yield it to my friend from Texas?

Mr. HUNTER. A parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. HUNTER. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would yield to the gentleman.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the service and sacrifice of Cpl Chad Michael Watson who lost a leg in an improvised explosive device attack. While on patrol in the Anbar province in Iraq on November 29, 2006, Chad's vehicle came under attack and he was severely wounded and later lost his right leg. The son of Mike and Gina Watson, Chad was born in Mount Zion, Illinois on February 8, 1983. He attended Mount Zion High School graduating in 2004. Chad joined the Marine Corps May 17, 2004 and was trained as an infantryman. Following his initial training he deployed to Iraq with Charlie Company, 1st Infantry Battalion, and 24th Marines where he served until his injury. During the twenty months of recovery, Chad maintained a positive and even uplifting attitude which reflected well among those fellow marines and soldiers passing through the recovery process at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Mr. Albert Caswell of the U.S. Capitol Guide Service, a friend of his, penned the following poem as a fitting tribute to Chad for his sacrifice and unrelenting commitment to his long and enduring recovery. Breaking Chad. . . Breaking Bad! Breaking Chad! He's Good, but he's the good king of Bad. . . A Marine's Marine, one Fine Fighting Machine! The kind of son, you wish you had! First in boot camp. . . First in his class in military school . . . training with his brothers in arms, as number one he'd rule. . . Wherever hearts of courage roam, men like Chad have come home with but their hearts of heroism full. . . A Hero who went off to war. . . Who lost a leg, but came back with so much more! With his courage full, over our hearts he rules . . . as he takes us all to school . . . is that not what heaven is for? Upon, battlefields of honor seen! Running towards death, as he was strong . . . fast and lean . . . a real bad fighting machine! Upon the scene! The kind of guy you'd fight for and not ask why . . . ready to die for you and his United States Marines! For in our Country Tis of Thee. . . There have been many heroes such as these who heard the call . . . who did not pause, as did he! Who are but rough & ready, while in the face of hell were ever steady . . . for their colors did not run, you see! And now his new fight. . . To rebuild his life, with his fine and future wife . . . teaching us all what is right! `Oh what a heck of a sight, bringing tears to eyes . . . as he does not ask why . . . bringing to our world his light!

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the long and committed service of Lieutenant Colonel James Weiland to the Illinois Wing of the Civil Air Patrol, CAP. It was in April 1956 that Jim joined the CAP as a cadet and through his high school years he attained the rank of cadet captain. He then served his country in the U.S. Air Force for 3 years before joining the CAP as a senior member. During his service as a member of the Illinois Wing, Lt. Col. Weiland held several leadership positions including Group Commander, Cadet Program Development Officer Wing Director of Cadets. Prior to these challenges he served with distinction as Wing Assistant Director as well as Communications, Licensing and Radio Maintenance Officer. These challenges led to his being named CAP Communicator of the Year in 2008. Beyond these significant accomplishments, Lt. Col. Weiland will again distinguish himself at the conclusion of the July 26, 2008, Illinois Wing Summer Encampment making this the 60th summer encampment he has attended since 1956. Since his first, Jim has missed only 1 year but served at two different encampments from 1962 through 1968. Through these many years Jim has led cadets as Encampment Commander 3 times, Deputy Commander 6 times, Financial Officer 44 times and Tactical Officer 6 times. These leadership roles have led him to eight different CAP encampment sites within the Illinois patron area. While these leadership positions were ample commitment alone, Jim also helped out with other responsibilities such as serving the encampment's communications and many administrative needs. It is my honor, Madam Speaker, to recognize Lt. Col. Weiland's long service, unselfish dedication and hard work in support of the Civil Air Patrol and the Illinois Wing Encampment Program for nearly five decades. It can be said of this truly committed patriot, the Civil Air Patrol and many fine young cadets can all be said to have benefited tremendously from the distinguished commitment of Lt. Col. James Weiland.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. I thank you, and let me tell you, the State Fair in Iowa was wonderful. It was also wonderfully hot. That was a good little scorcher, the State Fair, but man, you had a tremendous State Fair. I've never seen one like it. So I just want to thank you and all of the wonderful people of Iowa. The great thing about them, they'll always listen to you and they'll let you make your point. And they very much, I think, treasure the fact that they're one of the first primaries in the Nation. And where they point this thing has a lot to do with the final nominations for both parties. It was a lot of fun. And let me tell you, campaigning in a State where you get to go to a lot of State fairs is not a bad deal. We had a great, great time in Iowa. And also going to the county fairs in the various counties. And I will say that in some counties there's a lot of road between fairs. But the gentleman takes that in stride.

Mr. HUNTER. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I'm ready to give him more time with that wonderful introduction, one that I don't deserve. But I thank the gentleman. I asked Mr. King to let me take a little time from his time tonight to talk about a couple of wonderful individuals. The first person I would like to mention is, of course, a lady who has been a wonderful representative from my office for many years in Imperial County, which was a big part of my congressional district for many years, and that's Carole Starr. And Carole Starr, when I got my congressional district moved out to Imperial County from San Diego County and went literally all the way from the Pacific Ocean to the Colorado River to Arizona, taking in the entire Mexican-California border, I found that I had a brand new constituency. It's a lot like the gentleman's from Iowa. I had a large farming constituency, a community in Imperial County with people of great character and people with lots of issues that were vastly different than the issues of folks who live in San Diego, but also people with a wonderful sense of patriotism. In that big valley, Imperial Valley, we had the Naval Air Facility where the Blue Angels train in the wintertime, and where we now have one of the best training grounds of any location in the United States. We're adjacent to the big Chocolate Mountain Gunnery Range, and an airplane or a group coming from any part of the United States to train can get up there and train 365 days a year in that good desert air. We also have that wonderful farming constituency, probably the most productive land in the world, acre-for-acre, under irrigation from the Colorado River. It's a place where we have lots of people with great character. And communities like Brawley and El Centro and Calexico and Imperial and lots of other wonderful communities in Imperial County. Running that entire county for our office was a wonderful lady named Carole Starr. I lost the Valley a few years ago, Imperial Valley, in redistricting, but Carole Starr was such a fantastic person, and today is quite ill, she's under the weather right now and is home resting in Imperial County with a very difficult ailment. But I just thought it would be important to take the floor and talk about Carole for a minute because she was such a big part of our operation in Imperial County and such a wonderful leader in that county. You know, I had a pretty full office in San Diego County and usually seven or eight folks there in the office. Carole Starr ran the Imperial County office all by herself, and whether you were a person of means in Imperial County, or if you just hitchhiked in and just came in off of the freeway off-ramp, you could walk into our congressional office in Imperial Valley Airport in Imperial and knock on that door, and Carole Starr would greet with you with a smile and say, ``How can I be of service to you?'' And Carole weathered all these very difficult issues that we had, from the carnal bunt disease that took down our green crop one year, to the myriad problems with the Colorado River, the desalinization plant there at Yuma, the ongoing water struggles that always engulfed California politics, and of course, all of the day-to-day work that you find in any congressional office where you have folks that need to get that Social Security check or make sure that they get that particular veterans' service or have some help with the IRS. Anybody could walk in Carole Starr's door, and they would be greeted with great professionalism, a warm smile, and a ``How can I help you'' attitude, and I always called Carole Starr the ``Star of the Valley.'' And you know, over the years, Mr. Speaker, when I would visit Imperial Valley with my family, and especially my two boys, Duncan and Sam, Sam started out when we got Imperial County. Really, he had just been born. He was a brand new baby, and over the years, he grew, and one of the things that we did many times when we were in Imperial Valley was we would always match up Carole, who stood about five three, with Sam. And Carole always wanted to see how fast he was growing and try to estimate when he would surpass her height. I know one time, back when Dick Cheney came to Imperial County to work with me on some of the desert issues, and Carole Starr would always do a back-to-back with my son Sam to see how much he had grown over the last month or so. And on that occasion--and that was about, oh, I don't know, about 1992 or 1994--in fact, my son Sam Hunter at that point surpassed Carole Starr in height, and of course, he's been growing ever since. He's now about six two. But Carole Starr was just a warm, wonderful person who had a trademark of directness and honesty and good will. And today, she lies quite stricken by a very severe ailment, and I just hope that God will hold her in the palm of his hand and take care of her and give comfort to her family because Carole Starr represented the very best of our outreach to our community. And I know every Member of this body has several dimensions to their service. One dimension is what we do here on the House floor and what we do with respect to legislation and bills and the administration, whether it's Democrat or Republican. But the other dimension is how we relate to our constituents in our district, and just like the gentleman from Iowa, we all have about 700,000 folks in our district. And some of them have real pressing problems, and in some cases, we are the last resort for those constituents who have been to Federal agencies and have been turned down or stiff-armed or have no other options, and they come to us. And sometimes we're able to help them, but we're only able to help them when we have great, wonderful people serving us in our district offices, and Carole Starr, who ran the entire Imperial County--and I called her the ``Star of the Desert'' because she truly was one of those people with a great, great heart and great professionalism. Mr. Speaker, I'd also like to mention a couple of other individuals who are very important to me, and I know we've got lots of people retiring this year. We've got a lot of folks that have served here for many years. I just want to mention a couple of people, Jimmy Saxton and Terry Everett, two great personal friends and two great servants of this country on the House Armed Services Committee are, in fact, retiring. You know, Jimmy Saxton came in, I believe it was in 1982 when he came into office, and I remember he replaced Ed Forsythe. In fact, when he went in to get the obligatory picture taken with then-President Ronald Reagan when he was a candidate for Congress, Ed Forsythe had passed away. And he was that well-known Congressman who had a butch haircut, and he wore a bow tie and was quite well-known on Capitol Hill. And when Jimmy Saxton walked up to Ronald Reagan and said I'm running for Ed Forsythe's seat, Ronald Reagan, not having read the Washington Post all that much, said ``Go get him,'' and of course, Jimmy Saxton said, ``I can't do that, he's a decedent, and I'm running for the open seat.'' But Jimmy Saxton started a career in which he represented his Third District in New Jersey so ably, and he worked on environmental matters. He worked on local issues, and he protected those important military bases and gave them their best shot at surviving base closure, which he did very effectively, I might add, and he helped to bring the New Jersey back to New Jersey, that great battleship. But I think Jimmy's most important work was done in the Armed Services Committee, in that committee and on the House floor. He chaired that very important Subcommittee on Terrorism. He traveled around the world. Every time you found two Green Berets or Navy SEALs or Army Rangers, Jimmy Saxton was there talking to them, learning what they needed, learning about operations, and then making a difference when we marked up the Defense bill. And Jimmy Saxton will be sorely missed. He's now the ranking member on the Air and Land Forces Subcommittee that makes important decisions. To Chairman Abercrombie, he's the ranking member, and he of course is still the Jimmy Saxton of great diligence who puts in lots of hours, working these important issues. And I'm going to miss Jimmy Saxton. He's one of those great public servants who gives so much more to this country than he gets, and he likes it that way. And he's got a little bit of a back ailment right now. I think that's because he was probably the only guy in the history of New Jersey athletics who was about a 5-foot-9 shot-putter, held the State shot put record as a high schooler, weighing a whopping 160 pounds. And maybe Jimmy Saxton started out at six two or six three, but right now he's got a little bit of an ailing back because of that great prowess that he had with the shot put. Jimmy Saxton is just a great, wonderful person, and he's helped to make the Special Operations that is now so important to war fighting and especially important to the war on terror, to make our Special Operations effective and to make it not only a leading command in many of the theaters, a command that is to be supported by the combatant commanders in those particular theaters, but also a supporting force when it's necessary. And the way the Special Operations has laminated and integrated and worked with the line units in our war-fighting theaters has been a real part of the success of the American operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. A lot of that was due to Jimmy Saxton. He is a guy who can look at an issue, without becoming parochial and without becoming polarized, get all the information and try to make a wise decision, using that great judgment. And so I'm going to miss Jimmy Saxton, and more than that, I think this is country going to miss him. You know, the other guy I'd like to talk about just briefly is Terry Everett. Here's a guy who came from a working background, went to work for a newspaper, was a writer and editor and, finally, a publisher and an owner of a little string of newspapers in Alabama and then ran for Congress and got elected. And Terry Everett is another one of those guys who, like Jimmy Saxton, has gone right to the heart of national security. And as the chairman of the Strategic Subcommittee, and also a member of the Armed Services Committee who's on the Intelligence Committee, he has a unique understanding of the importance of space assets and what we have to do with space assets to maintain our economy and our security. And there's probably very few people, if anybody else, in the Congress who understands space as well as Terry Everett. Terry Everett's not a guy you will find making speeches. He's always the guy with the shortest remarks at the press conference when he attends a press conference. But when you close the doors, when you're working on the Intel Committee or the Armed Services Committee, or a combination of issues that affect both those committees, he's one of the hardest working guys that you will ever see. It's guys like Terry Everett that make this country's security apparatus run so well. They don't put out a lot of press releases, but they put out a lot of hard work. And also, Terry's got that great sense of being able to work with people, gain their trust, find out what the issues are, and then work to resolve those issues. That's so important when you work with lots of intelligence officers, when you work with the Special Operations Command, when you work with the space command, and you have to not only do that but you've got to serve the people back home. And Terry also, incidentally, is a master woodworker. I remember I was in his little woodworking studio there at his house in Alabama, and I was going to ask Terry if I could work on some cabinets in his woodworking studio. And he said sure, and I looked down and there were some spots of blood on the floor. I said, ``What's that?'' He said, ``Well, that's just where I cut my hand kind of badly with that machine over there.'' He said, ``I leave that blood there just to remind me to be careful.'' I haven't completed my woodworking course with Terry Everett, but I look forward to that. So, Mr. Speaker, those are a couple of great individuals who have really made their mark in this House, and they're going to be leaving us. We're sorry to see them go. And incidentally, another guy who's done a great job on this committee, Rob Andrews from New Jersey, also. Great, great, wonderful individual, often was really a center of bipartisan cooperation on important issues. And you know, we'd be sometimes polarizing on the Armed Services Committee, with a Democrat position and Republican position. Most of the time we're bipartisan, but then we'd start to polarize. We'd all kind of wait to listen to Rob Andrews because he would look at the issue on the merits. And sometimes he'd come down on one side and sometimes he'd come down on the other, but you knew that his position was always a result of reason and was not necessarily a result of looking over and kind of counting the votes and trying to figure out where his team was going or where the other team was going. We need folks like that in these difficult, partisan times to bring us together, find that common ground and move the country forward. And I always thought Rob was the very representative of that style that is so important to the success of this House. So, Mr. Speaker, thanks for letting me take this time. It's always fun to come down and take a big bite out of somebody else's time, and I want to thank the gentleman from Iowa for letting me take some of his minutes here. I really appreciate it. And the gentleman from Iowa, incidentally, is a very wonderful friend and a great colleague and a guy who really has been working this energy issue with great energy and was a wonderful host to those of us who spent our time in Iowa in that Presidential race, including those of us like myself who had rather short-lived campaigns. The gentleman from Iowa was always there, always gracious, always willing to put a group together, and helped to create that great forum that is Iowa politics. I want to thank the gentleman. And I want to thank him, also, for his great help on the border fence, a very important issue. And he helped to push this bill that we finally got passed in 2006. We got a mandate to build 854 miles of double-border fence, got watered down a little bit by the other body, but we're still constructing. And we've got projects now in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and California. And the gentleman did a lot of work to make sure that happens. So I want to thank him.

Mr. HUNTER. I thank the gentleman. Thanks a lot for letting me take that time to talk about Carole Starr and Terry Everett and Jimmy Saxton.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. I rise, Mr. Speaker, to talk about duty, honor, and country. Many times, Members of this great body rise to talk about those who wear the uniform of the United States who have fallen in the Iraq or the Afghanistan theater and to recount their actions and to recount their mission and to praise their motive and their patriotism and their love of this great country. I rise tonight, Mr. Speaker, to talk about an American who was killed on the 24th of this month, not wearing the uniform of the United States in the military service, even though he had served in the military for some 31 years, but who was killed in a deadly area in Iraq as an American contractor, an American who had worked as a contractor for the Department of Defense and then the Department of State, Steven Farley. Steven Farley represented the very best of this country, and I have a picture here, Mr. Speaker, that I'd like to show the Members. This is him in his Navy uniform. Before he donned this Navy uniform and finished a career of 31 years in the U.S. military, he served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. He was a man of service, and when he left his wonderful wife, Donna, and his family to go to Iraq, he told them that he understood that this was a difficult and dangerous mission. He worked on a provincial reconstruction team, and I think he represented a forgotten segment of this great effort, this effort to bring the sunlight of freedom to Iraq. He represented those people that don't wear the uniform in this operation but who wear contractor uniforms, who go out into very dangerous places in Iraq. And in this case, Steven Farley was with three colleagues, working the provincial reconstruction teams in Iraq. He was in Sadr City, that adjunct to Baghdad that has over 1 million people in an area of great fighting and great turmoil and great danger. And yet when he came home to see his loved ones, he told them he knew that he was in danger. He knew that it might, at some point, cost him his life, but he told them that he thought the cause was a worthwhile cause. His service to America represented all those wonderful aspects of duty and honor and country and patriotism, even though he wasn't wearing the uniform of the Army or the Marine Corps or the Air Force or the Navy, because he was serving that same goal, that same ideal, that same flag, and all of us. Mr. Speaker, he came home a few weeks before, bringing some of the members of the city council of Sadr City to the United States to let them see what freedom was like, what this great experiment in freedom called the United States of America was like, to inspire them, to give them a model they could go back and use in this fledgling representative government that is now taking place in Iraq. He wanted to show them the American example, and Mr. Speaker, his example and the example of his family and the example of his great community, a guy from Guthrie, Oklahoma, it was the finest example that anybody can watch if they indeed want to model their country, their community, their town after a winning democracy, the United States of America. So here was a gentleman who served in a very, very crucial area for the United States, and most of the work that we do here in the House of Representatives, most of our work is air-conditioned. I'm so proud of the members of the Armed Services Committee, most of whom have taken multiple trips to see the troops and the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. And we now and again go out and put our boots on the ground in some tough places, but most of the time, we're in Washington, D.C., or with our constituent cities and our wonderful communities. These Americans, Americans like Steven Farley, are out there for years on end in very difficult conditions, carrying the American flag. So, Mr. Speaker, a number of us on the Armed Services Committee are going to be visiting Iraq and Afghanistan in the coming months, especially the summer months, when we take the district work period break. I will tell you one thing I'm going to do. When I go to Baghdad this time, I'm going to spend more time with those contractors, people who haven't necessarily been given all of the credit that they should be given by this body, by the House of Representatives. People talk about the contractors as if they were somehow mercenaries. Well, Steven Farley represented the very best of this very wonderful force of Americans who help to establish freedom around the world. May he rest in peace. God bless his family, and thank you, Steven Farley, for your service to the United States.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor and pay tribute to the life and memory of a true American hero, John Rodger Barnes. John was a long-time resident of Southern California and passed away at his Indian Hills home on February 15, 2008. John attended schools in Mansfield and briefly studied law at Boston University. It was there in Mansfield that he met and married his lifelong companion, Alice T. Barnes of Brockton, Massachusetts, in 1940. The young couple began their family at their home on a small farm there in Mansfield. When World War II began, John was working at Harvard University and in 1943 he joined the U.S. Navy, later serving in the Pacific Theater with the Navy Seabees. It was there on the island of Saipan, at Leyte, and later in the Philippines that he distinguished himself in fierce battle earning several medals for valor including six Bronze Battle Stars. He also participated in battles at Tinian, the Lingayen Gulf, Luzon and Okinawa Island and was on a ship anchored near Japan when the order to drop the first atomic bomb was issued. Following the war, John returned to his Mansfield farm until 1950 when he and Alice moved with their 5 children to Patrick Air Force Base, Florida. In 1959, John moved his family to Southern California but later joined the Chrysler Corporation as a leader in its tool and die operation. Following his retirement there he and Alice moved back to Southern California and lived at the Galleano Winery in Mira Loma until her death in 1997. The majority of his retirement was spent in Southern California where he continued to enjoy his good health, reading many fine books, watching the birds and squirrels, and penning scores of editorial letters to several local papers. John was survived by his children Barry, David Harding, Doreen Elizabeth, and Ellen Judith, his brothers Sam and Peter and sisters Rosalee and Margot. His son John Rodgers and siblings Clarence, Jane, David and Thomas all preceded him in death. The success of his children and grandchildren always gave John great pride often saying that they ``did well because I didn't interfere.'' A highly decorated combat veteran, a talented and distinguished technician and a loving and caring father, John imparted his values and virtues on his large and wonderful family, the several communities he served and the many precious lives he touched so gently. He will be truly missed by all so fortunate to have been touched by his kindness.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Let me ask my friend, Dan Burton, a lot of people have criticized Phil Mickelson because he is kind of a go-for-broke player. And they often say, as in some of the shots that he took in some of the closing holes in some of the majors, that Phil Mickelson didn't play the odds, that he didn't hit the safe shot. He went for the go-for- broke shot. And in some cases, it didn't work out. I kind of like that. Because that is really what we go to the golf course to see.

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I want to let all of my colleagues know that, as most of them already do, that tomorrow is the United States Open, the great U.S. Open, the great tradition in golf competition. And it is going to be held at Torrey Pines in San Diego. I thought this might be an appropriate time to pay tribute to those great golfers who have come to the San Diego area, and especially to talk about the dean of golf in San Diego, that great champion who won two U.S. opens, Billy Casper. We have had a number of great champions out of San Diego. Madam Speaker, there is a line that connects Billy Casper and Phil Mickelson, who is one of the top contenders. He is going to be playing tomorrow. He is a great U.S. Open competitor who has been runner-up four times. He said the other day, I think it was on the Golf Channel, that he loves the U.S. Open. So far the U.S. Open hasn't loved him. But he follows a succession of great golfers out of San Diego. We had ``Gene the Machine,'' Gene Littler, who won the U.S. Open in 1961; the great Mickey Wright, possibly the greatest woman golfer of all time, who won, I believe, four LPGA championships; Craig Stadler, who while he didn't win the U.S. Open, won the Masters; the great Paul Runyan, ``Little Poison,'' who at one point, even though he was outdriven about 100 yards on every drive by Sam Snead at the PGA Championships back in the thirties beat the Great Snead 8 and 7 by being so good around the greens; and of course the great Scott Simpson who won the U.S. Open in 1987. And that leads me to the guy who won the U.S. Open two times, really the dean of golf in San Diego, California, the great Billy Casper. Madam Speaker, people don't understand how great Billy Casper was and is. He won 51 professional tournaments. During the heyday of the big three, that was Palmer, Player and Nicklaus, that period between 1964 and 1970 when those three golfers were winning a combined 35 victories, Billy Casper by himself was winning 23 victories, more than Palmer or Player combined and three more than Jack Nicklaus. In fact, I think it was the great Jack Nicklaus who said at one point that it should have been the big four. Billy Casper is a guy who had the greatest Ryder Cup record in the history of American golfers and the best come-from-behind win in a U.S. Open championship in our history. And let me tell you just a little bit about that. It was 1966 at Olympic Golf Course in San Francisco. Billy Casper walked up to the tee on the last nine, the back nine of the last 18 holes of the last day of the U.S. Open. He walked up to the tee seven shots behind the great Arnold Palmer in his prime. And after he had finished that nine holes, he had shot a 32, he had tied Palmer who was only three over par on the back nine, and with a seven-shot lead, you ought to be able to win the U.S. Olympic with the 37 on the last nine. But he tied him, caught him by seven strokes in the last nine holes. And the next day, the great Billy Casper won the playoff against Arnold Palmer with a 69. That is the great Billy Casper, one of the great Americans of all time, one of the great athletes and golfers of all time, and our dean of golf in San Diego. I want to recognize my friend, Danny Burton who, while he is very modest, is a great athlete. He was the high school champion in Indiana, a guy we have all looked up to and a guy who also has some memories of his own about some of these U.S. Open champions. I would like to yield to my friend from Indiana.

Mr. HUNTER. I thank the gentleman.

Mr. HUNTER. I thank the gentleman. And I will just say that it is a great day for Billy Casper, a great day for Phil Mickelson tomorrow, and a great day for the U.S. Open and all of our past champions.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I submit the following: Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter. Bill Number: H.R. 5658. Account: Shipbuilding & Conversion, Navy. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: PMS 450, Virginia Class Submarine Program. Address of Requesting Entity: Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C. Description of Request: Adds $422 million in additional advanced procurement funding for the VIRGINIA Class submarine program. The Navy has a projected shortfall of 7 attack submarines beginning in fiscal year 2028. The provision of advanced procurement in fiscal year 2009 would allow the Navy to accelerate procurement of 2 submarines per year beginning in fiscal year 2010, potentially decreasing the shortfall to 6 SSNs. Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter. Bill Number: H.R. 5658. Account: Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Fund. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Sierra Nevada. Address of Requesting Entity: Hagerstown, MD. Description of Request: Provide $50 million for the rapid fielding of additional Aerial Reconnaissance Multi-Sensor Platforms for tactical operations in OIF and OEF. Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter. Bill Number: H.R. 5658. Account: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Navy. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: L-3 Communications, San Diego, CA; MBDA, Los Angeles, CA; Raytheon, Tucson, AZ; Boeing, St, Louis, MO. Description of Request: The Affordable Weapons System (AWS) program is an advanced technology initiative to design, develop, and produce an affordable precision guided weapon. Phase II to begin September 2008 will study best material approach, conops and system architecture refinement, and a comprehensive risk assessment leading to a preferred system concept with a flyaway cost of less than $250 thousand. The results from the Phase I and Phase II study will support the development of an ICD leading to a new start program in 2010 with a 2016 first article delivery. An additional $15 million will support the Phase II contracts. Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter. Bill Number: H.R. 5658. Account: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Navy. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: L-3 Communications. Address of Requesting Entity: 9925 Carroll Canyon Road; San Diego, CA. 92131. Description of Request: The SEA FIGHTER program provides a low cost, low risk, high payoff pathway for rapidly transitioning SEA FIGHTER into an operationally deployable asset as well as demonstrating transformational and highly survivable persistent surveillance capabilities in ungoverned and denied areas that can be applied to current and future Naval Littoral and USCG Maritime vessels. A funding level of $10 million for FY 2009 is required to upgrade the ship mast structure, and for enhanced active and passive survivability system modifications, HVAC, pilot house armor, weather tight mezzanine heavy curtain, upgraded ramp cradle system, four face SATCOM, surveillance and navigation systems, DCGS-N build-out, C4ISR installation, and integration and testing. Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter. Bill Number: H.R. 5658. Account: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Navy. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Torrey Pines Logic. Address of Requesting Entity: 12651 High Bluff Drive; San Diego, CA. Description of Request: The Navy's need for a secure non-RF alternative to radio communication is well known. The need arises from operational scenarios, such as Underway Replenishment, where vessels are unable to use radios due to RF jammers, EMCON conditions, the presence of IEDs, and the need for a secure communication system that has a low probability of interception and detection. $2 million to the IR LED Free Space Optics Communications Advancement program will allow the program to advance LightSpeed technology, which is a proven, tested and fielded technology based on IR LED Free Space Optics (FSO) concepts. The funding will enable the advancement of the technology's size, weight, power, distance and bandwidth for the Navy's use in Special Operations and general services communities. Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter. Bill Number: H.R. 5658. Account: Procurement, Defense-Wide. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: California National Guard. Address of Requesting Entity: San Diego, CA. Description of Request: The Southwest Border Fence supports the President's border security initiative and makes for more efficient and effective use of the National Guardsmen deployed in support of Operation Jump Start. $5 million will continue work on the 14-mile Border Infrastructure near San Diego, CA. Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter. Bill Number: H.R. 5658. Account: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Navy. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Information Systems Laboratories. Address of Requesting Entity: 10140 Barnes Canyon Road; San Diego, CA. Description of Request: The Tactical E-Field Buoy program will develop an affordable ASW buoy that is capable of detecting challenging targets in acoustically difficult littoral environments and is compatible with existing Navy air-deployed systems. $7 million in FY09 will fabricate and ocean test the performance of a cluster-type array of small E-sensors against a submarine target. Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter. Bill Number: H.R. 5658. Account: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Army. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Allermed Laboratories, Inc. Address of Requesting Entity: 7203 Convoy Court; San Diego, CA 92111. Description of Request: The Leishmania Skin Test will provide a tool for military physicians to screen service personnel prior to and after deployment to endemic regions, prevent contamination of the blood supply by identifying persons who should not become donors, and identify and provide definitive care to service members infected with the parasite. $1.5 million in FY09 funding will plan and execute a phase III clinical trial. Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter. Bill Number: H.R. 5658. Account: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Army. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Trex Enterprises. Address of Requesting Entity: 7203 Convoy Court; San Diego, CA 92111. Description of Request: An unacceptable number of aircraft accidents involving all category Army helicopters conducting combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq have been caused by the brownout phenomenon. $4.5 million will continue development & testing of the Brownout Situational Awareness Sensor, specifically, to increase operating range and field of view; harden modular components; and, integrate the system platform. Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter. Bill Number: H.R. 5658. Account: Other Procurement, Navy. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: IBM. Address of Requesting Entity: 4600 La Jolla Village Drive #300; San Diego, CA. Description of Request: SSC-SD has developed algorithms that are extremely complex and computationally intensive on the High Performance Computing (HPC) nodes in the laboratory environment. This classified project related to IED detection has been an on-going use of the HPC laboratory capability and with $2 million in supplemental funding, ready to be turned into an operational capability. Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter. Bill Number: H.R. 5658. Account: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Navy. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: San Diego DEFCOMM. Address of Requesting Entity: 1870 Cordell Court, Suite 208; El Cajon, CA 92020. Description of Request: JIST-NET will provide the warfighter with an integrated and single pane-of-glass planning and situational awareness system for satellite communications (SATCOM) and network communications. $6 million will allow SATCOM to move forward and operationally field JIST-NET in next 6 to 9 months. Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter. Bill Number: H.R. 5658. Account: Other Procurement, Air Force. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Telos Corporation. Address of Requesting Entity: 19886 Ashburn Road; Ashburn, VA. Description of Request: $3.5 million will provide a communication system to the 147th Combat Communications Squadron in San Diego, CA to improve wartime readiness levels and provide for a robust capability during a potential disaster. Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter. Bill Number: H.R. 5658. Account: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Air Force. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: SpaceDev, Inc. Address of Requesting Entity: 13855 Stowe Drive; Poway, CA. Description of Request: Hybrid Sounding Rocket will benefit the nation's defense through the accomplishment of designing and fabricating a new propulsion design that provides safe and environmentally friendly launch services for small payloads. $2 million will complete flight article design, complete three heavy motor ground test firings, selection and preparation of a suitable launch site, complete first flight article, and the demonstration flight. Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter. Bill Number: H.R. 5658. Account: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Navy. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: East County Economic Development Council. Address of Requesting Entity: 1870 Cordell Court, Suite 202; El Cajon, CA. Description of Request: The Connectory, a proven business-to-business database, lets DoD compare and analyze objectively capabilities across the industrial base to address warfighter requirements, particularly limited production items. $1.3 million will expand the number of California companies profiled. Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter. Bill Number: H.R. 5658. Account: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Navy. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: SYS Technologies. Address of Requesting Entity: 5050 Murphy Canyon Road; San Diego, CA. Description of Request: The System for Intelligent Task Assignment & Readiness (SITAR) will support accurate, predictive 21st century readiness models. $3 million will enhance the SITAR program. Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter. Bill Number: H.R. 5658. Account: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Navy. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Surface Optics Corporation. Address of Requesting Entity: 11555 Rancho Bernardo Road; San Diego, CA. Description of Request: $3 million for the Real-Time Hyperspectral Targeting Sensor will be used to miniaturize a small, low cost Hyper Sensor integrated with GPS location data and real time processing capability. Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter.. Bill Number: H.R. 5658. Account: Procurement of Ammunition, Air Force. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Boeing, Corp. Address of Requesting Entity: P.O. Box 516; St. Louis, MO. Description of Request: $40 million will procure additional Joint Direct Attack Munition kits. This funding was the #12 priority on the Air Forces Unfunded Requirements. Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter. Bill Number: H.R. 5658. Account: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Army. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Skybuilt. Address of Requesting Entity: 4449 N. 38th Street; Arlington, VA. Description of Request: $2 million will be used to fund an existing Army effort for RDTE and field testing of solar power at forward operating bases.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Current Resolution 355, 110th Congress, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, we finished this defense bill today and we have got a couple of gentlemen who are retiring from public office. We have two gentlemen from the Armed Services Committee, Mr. Andrews and Mr. Udall, who are leaving the committee to run for the U.S. Senate, and I want to commend them and wish them the best. But we also have two gentlemen who are retiring from public office, and that is Mr. Jim Saxton and Mr. Terry Everett. I thought it would be proper at the end of this bill to talk about them because they are remarkable people. Jimmy Saxton is a guy who probably has learned more about our Special Operations Forces and their needs than probably anybody else in Washington, D.C. He is the guy who is the chairman of the first Terrorism Subcommittee, which oversees Special Operations, whether it's our SEALs, our Rangers, our Special Forces, or others. He took it upon himself to learn everything that he possibly could so that he could go back to the committee and put together a defense bill that gave them what they needed. Jimmy Saxton is a guy with a great heart. He is a lifelong friend of mine. We have been political allies and personal friends for many, many years. If you ask Jimmy Saxton for a favor, he just does it. He doesn't ponder it, he doesn't have to analyze it or calculate, he just does it. That is a wonderful quality to have in a good friend because you can get lots of them from them. I have always made it a habit to exploit Jimmy Saxton for political favors because he is always there, ready to help. What a dear, wonderful friend Jimmy Saxton is. Terry Everett, I have said this on several occasions, but this is a guy who is so critical to this country because he is a guy who shuns the limelight, shuns cameras, but works in closed rooms in classified session is in both the Intelligence Committee and the Armed Services Committee with that cross-pollenization of information and the right classifications and can see the right documents and the right information, that he is able to put together a coherent policy that will allow us to protect American interests in space, and by doing that, make sure we protect Americans who depend on space for our military eyes and our economic eyes. Terry Everett is going to be hard to replace. In fact, I don't think you can replace him. He is also like Jim Saxton, a dear friend of mine. We have been political allies and personal friends, it seems forever, that great guy from Alabama. I went back to see his house one time that he built by himself, and when I walked into his woodworking shop, which is massive, and he has got more machinery than the average saw mill, I noticed there was some blood on the floor. It was dried blood. I said Terry, What is that? He said, Well, I almost cut my thumb off one time and I just left that blood there to remind myself to be safe. Well, Terry Everett is one of those guys who's able to do all this great work for our country, working on space, working on missiles, working on missile defense, and also knowing the personalities, the people that populate the Pentagon and our intelligence agencies and Capitol Hill, and being able to weave all those people and all that technology together in a way that he has had such an impact on our national security. So, like Jim Saxton, Terry Everett is going to be a man who is irreplaceable. Let me tell you, in my memory, both of these great Americans are irreplaceable for what they have done for their country and what their personal friendship has meant to me.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. If the gentleman will yield, and I'd hoped that Mr. Spratt would concur with this. It is important, I think, for the Members of this body, because the first thing we ask when we do intelligence briefings, we say, How far away is that Nation or those particular people from developing enough material or having enough of a program to build a weapon, a device, a nuclear weapon. So in commonsense language that is the question we ask. So the gentleman has put the word milestones, as the gentleman from New York said, in this particular report. I would hope that we could define that as we go into conference in terms of material necessary to build a device, and to receive some specifics on that so that we don't have a vague question that the community may have a problem in determining precisely what we mean.

Mr. HUNTER. Would the gentleman yield?

Mr. HUNTER. I want to say that we've looked at this on our side, we think it makes sense, and we concur with it. I want to congratulate the two gentlemen who are the cosponsors of this particular amendment. We support it. Madam Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time unless they want to use some of the time on their side.

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment.

Mr. HUNTER. May I ask unanimous consent that he be given an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. HUNTER. Absolutely. I would be happy to yield to my friend.