Georgia, john hoeven of north dakota, and tom tillis of North Carolina. This is about 35 minutes. , mr. President , this week this coming week will mark veterans day. It is an important time for us to reflect on what veterans do for us and what their families do for us, the sacrifices that both those who served and those who support those who serve is incredibly important. We have half a million missouri veterans and one of the great privileges of this job is to get to represent them, and the values and commitment to freedom in our country that they stand for. Just a couple of weeks ago, i had the opportunity to welcome a group of southwest missouri veterans who came to washington with the honor flight program. I think you do this too, that every time i get a chance if there is an honor flight from our state i try to get down there, because it is a great time to see and talk to and thank those who have served us. And the honor flight started 20 years ago or so, there were still some world war i veterans coming and almost all world war ii veterans. Today we see a few world war ii veterans and some korea veterans and vietnam veterans, all of whom continue to serve in the great tradition of being willing to fight for the freedoms that we enjoy every day. I find it humbling and gratifying to know that those andrans get to come here enjoy the day with each other, but also in many cases, the first time they have ever been to the capital. They go to the world war ii memorial and to arlington and other places on that trip that now so many tens of thousands have taken. Many of those veterans that i saw the other day and that i have seen for the history of the honor flight were just teenagers when they answered the call to serve. Basically, little more than High School Kids who knew that something needed to be done and they were able and willing to do it. Battles,ht difficult in some cases often under unbearable conditions. Some of them lost their closest friends in the military. Many of them lost comrades in arms. Some of them lost comrades right beside them. Some of them lost those who went out on another mission and never came back. Some of their families lost the veteran to be that never got to be in veteran. I was down just recently in perry go, missouri on the mississippi river. They are building a fullsize replica of the Vietnam Memorial, the vietnam wall. We were able to present them with a flag. The group that had raised the money, and made the plans at the Vietnam Memorial on the mall to take back, to become part of the Vietnam Memorial at perryville. Our veterans are an Extraordinary Group of men and women. They really stand for the best we stand for as a nation. Important that we just dont honor them on veterans day but honor them every day, every day that we live in this free and prosperous nation that they helped defend. Admittedly, its hard not to take all the freedoms that we enjoy for granted because generations of americans have been able to fight have been willing and fight and die to protect those freedoms. Americans have benefited from those freedoms and it seems to us the way people should have able to live everywhere and maybe too often we think its even the way people do live everywhere, but in many parts of the world, having the security to walk out the door everything morning, to drop your kids off at school, to go to work and earn a living, to worship as you please, to build a better life is not available to people in other countries the way it is here because of the debt of gratitude we owe to our veterans. This year one of the areas of great legislative success has been in the work for veterans. Chairman isakson of georgia is going to follow me on the floor in just a few minutes, and he is the chairman of that Veterans Committee, and sure hes got a great committee, but theyve got a great chairman, and that committee, its chairman the committee in the house have passed eight bills at least that the president of the United States has signed into law that do a number of things for our veterans. Weve built on previous progress for improving veterans care. A few years ago we made the decision that veterans need to have more choices. That if you are a he a veteran, you shouldnt have to drive by the hospital that youd like to go to to go to a hospital miles and hours away. You shouldnt have to drive by three facilities that would do as good a job or a better job to get to a veterans facility. Now there are some things our veterans facilities should be better at than anybody else. They should be better at dealing with postTraumatic Stress in all likelihood than anybody else. So they may not be as accessible. They should be better at dealing with i. E. D. Attacks and eye injuries, and since all time people who work with veterans, prosthetics, people whove lost arms and legislative session in the service of their country, they should be pretty good at that. Theres no particular reason they should be all that good at openheart surgery or at kidney dialysis or all the other things you go to the hospital for. And if thats where you want to go, if youre a veteran you should be able if youre a veteran, you should be able to go there. But what we found out is a lot of veterans would rather go closer to home. A lot of veterans would rather go to a hospital theyre more familiar with when they need their own health care. Theyd like to go a hospital theyve been to with other family members and others. So weve really expanded the Veterans Choice Program and expanded the money available for that program, as youre trying to create these opportunities side by side with an existing facility, theres got to be some startup money involved. But eventually i think our young veterans are going to find that they can almost always find a hospital theyd rather go to or a doctor theyd rather see. Weve increased compensation for veterans with serviceconnected disabilities and world war ii veterans like arla herald from st. Louis who has suffered a lifetime of illness because he was part of a mustard gas experiment, is finally getting both the compensation and the recognition that his Lifetime Health was impacted by something that happened while he was serving his country. Weve continued efforts to address the problems that the Veterans Administration has had by passing legislation to modernize the outdated benefits claims appeals process, to make it easier for v. A. Employees to be fired. You know, while we want to protect employees who point out whats wrong, theres plenty by the way, theres been plenty of whistles to be blown at the v. A. Over the last decade, and while we want to be sure people can blow those whistles, we also want to be sure that the v. A. Can quickly and effectively move to remove employees who are not doing what they ought to do and in fact are aggressively doing in some cases things they shouldnt be doing. Weve worked to expand the possibility and the opportunity for educational benefits by expanding what can happen under the post9 11 g. I. Bill and helping connect vents with employers who veterans with employers who provide benefits. A bill that i sponsored in the congress was, i think, the part of the first major piece of legislation that the Congress Passed this year, and within 11 months or so, starting when that passed and i think sometime in the next few weeks, the department of labor is going to be talking about how we recognize and evaluate employers who hire veterans, who give veterans credit for skills they learned in the military, who promote veterans. Every employer that wants to say they hire veterans, thats a good thing because you should want to do that. But the hire vets act is sort of like the lead standard for energy. The hire vets act creates a standard that we can recognize companies who do that and do that in a significant way and ill pleased that secretary acosta at the department of labor has really put that on the fasttrack to get that done so these companies can begin to be recognized for what they do. Our veterans who have worked hard, do dangerous things, have kept us safement. Kept us safe, we tow them our continued job as legislators just as we tow them to follow in their footsteps, ensure that people who defend our country always have everything they need to defend our country and we are grateful to those who defended the can unin the past. Who defended the country in the past. And i would yield the floor. Mr. Isakson mr. President , i want to thank senator blunt, the distinguished senator from missouri, for his eloquent remarks on our veterans. For his support of all things that you, mr. President , and i have tried to do in the Veterans Committee and for pointing out the many reasons why we in america are so proud of the veterans who serve us and allow you and i object to here today. If it were not for our veterans, rest assure, this republic would not exist. I did an interview this morning, with an reporter who wanted to ask me a number of questions about the Current Administration and what we were doing for veterans. It turned out to be a 3540 minute interview. He said, i have a got one more question about you. This was on our phones. He said, ive got one more question for you. He said, dont you think we could save a lot of money if we didnt fight anymore wars . And i thought for a minute. I said, we probably characters but there wouldnt be any reason for you and i to exist because america is the place we want to be because were safe. Im going to bring that up because that is the reason we celebrate veterans day. Give thanks to the men and women who volunteer to serve in our countryandin the wars overseas and battles overseas and sometimes challenges domestically. To protect us and keep us flee. America is a great country. You dont find anybody trying to break out of the United States of america. Theyre all trying to break in. For a very good reason it is a safe and free place to raise a family, start a business, and serve in many other ways. So this year on the 11th day at the 11th hour and the 11th minute of november, when you celebrate, pause for a minute to say thanks to those who have come and gone and those who are still here to fight and serve us and protect us. Remember congress decided shortly after world war i, to decide that the 11th day, the day that the armistice was signed, the 11th of november, the 11th hour, 11 00 in the morning, would be the time to pay tribute to the veterans. So were all going to toll that bell one more time to give thanks to our veterans for all theyve done for us, for all they will do for us in the future. You know, its b its best when you talk about veterans, to talk about them of the people they were, the people they are, whether they are alive or passed on. I want to talk about two veterans whose paths crossed my life, to point out why we owe them so much and we have so much to be thankful for. One of them is Jackson Elliott cox, iii, of bird county, which is the bird dog capital of america. Its the home of a Nuclear Power plant. Its a beautiful rural county in georgia. Jack was my best friend in college. We met in 1962. We graduated in 1966. Ill never forget the last time i saw jack, when he was shipping out to go to o. C. S. In the marine corps. Jack decided when he graduated that it was more important for him to volunteer and fight for our country because of what was going on in vietnam than do anything else. He voluntarily joined the marine corps, went to o. C. S. , got his commission as an officer, became a captain in the United States marine corps. He fought and he died in vietnam. I will never forget the last words he told me when we put him on the bus from waynesboro, georgia, to atlanta to ultimately go to be shipped out. He said johnny, im sure im coming back. Dont worry about me, just pray for me. But in case i dont, make sure people remember who Jackson Elliott cox, iii, was. I said jack, ill do that. And sure enough, two years later he was shot and killed by a sniper in vietnam, lost his life at the age of 24. The finest human being i ever knew. Nicest guy i had ever met. My favorite friend out of all my life. He was taken from me because he volunteered to serve and fight for our country. So i im going to keep today before the United States senate the promise i made to him at that bus station. I want you to know who Jackson Elliott cox, iii, was. He was a good old country boy from south georgia. He volunteered to serve his runs life and gave his life so we could be here today. There are millions of men like him all over the world, hundreds of thousands of them. We have so much to thank him for because less than 1 of our population has worn the uniform, been in the battle and fought to save us like jackson did. When you have your chance to meet and become friends with a veteran, and all of you will, remember you owe them a debt of gratitude. Sometime when you get a chance to pay that debt back, do what im doing today. Dont let their memory ever be lost or forgotten, no matter where you go or where life takes you. Because you wouldnt get to where youre going had they not allowed you to be safe and free to travel that route. The second name i want to mention is noah harris. Noah is from georgia. He was a cheerleader at the university of georgia on saturday afternoon in november of 2001. It was his junior year. Georgia played clemson. He cheered and led the school to victory and celebrated like everybody else did. A few days later on september 11, 2001, he turned his television on to see 3,000 innocent citizens, most of them americans, die in the twin towers when al qaeda and Osama Bin Laden and the faces of evil and the agents of evil attacked our country. Took our innocence, killed our people, and changed the world forever. Noah was a cheerleader. We dont have mawpped draft anymore. You dont have to serve. He was not serving. He was going to graduate in a year and a half. He was going to be an architect. The next morning after 9 11 when he left his dorm, he went to the army rotc building at the university of georgia campus. He said after what i saw on tv last night, i want to go fight and get the people who did that to my country and my friends. They said mr. Harris, you cant do that, because the o. C. S. Is a twoyear program at the university. You dont have enough time to do it. He said i will study up, i want to go. I want to fight for my country. They let him in, and he did. He graduated with honors. A few months later, he graduated Second Lieutenant from the United States army at fort benning in georgia. Before too long, he was in gazaria, in iraq, a suburb of iraq. Giving beanie babies out of one pocket while the other pocket of his field jacket has ammunition. He was trying to win over the hearts of the iraqi children while he was fighting to preserve freedom for them and return their country to some form of a democracy or a republic away from the captives of saddam hussein. I knew him casually. I knew his parents well, rick and lucy. I know they have mourned every day since they lost noah in baghdad when he went there and died in an i. E. D. Accident. I know how proud they are of what he did and why he did it. Im proud he was my friend. Im proud to have known him as well. Im proud to be able to stand on the floor of the United States senate today and talk about noah harris and talk about Jackson Elliott cox, who are exemplary of all the others who have served in the military. Men and women, rich and poor, black and white, who have gone and fought the battle and borne the battle for us so we can be where we are today. It kind of reminds me of the guy who went to Benjamin Franklin in philadelphia shortly after the constitution was adopted. They said mr. Franklin, what have you given us . He stopped and paused for a republican and said a republic, if you can keep it. And we have kept it. We have kept it because we have subscribed to our constitution but because we have a militia and a military, were willing to fight for what we believe in, protect our citizens, keep our country free. So the country that our Founding Fathers gave to us that was nurtured in the early days of this republic that now is almost hundreds of years old still is there today for lots of reasons, but principally the undergirding foundation of a strong and vibrant military. So when veterans day comes back, give thanks to the veterans that you know. Mention a couple of them like i have done here so their memory and their names never die, but also so we can lift them up at a time we pause for just a minute to say thank you for the greatest country on the face of this earth. Senator blunt talked about our committee and what we have done this year. I want to just take a minute to reiterate some of the things he said because there are no democratic veterans and no republican veterans. There are only american veterans. They dont go to the battlefield as a partisan. They go to the battlefield as an american. They fight for us whether were a republican or a democrat. They risk their own life and sometimes sacrifice it, so we can do what ben franklin said keep that republic. We owe them a lot. In many ways, we owe them everything. We have had a mess of the v. A. In the last ten years. They have been the lead story on usa today more than any other agency in the government for failures of the v. A. To do the job it should have done. But under david shulkin, the secretary of the v. A. Appointed by president trump, under the leadership of our committees in the house and the senate, and under a commitment to bipartisan service by all of our members, which means we do almost everything unanimously and if not unanimously, almost unanimously, because its not about getting a republican president or a democratic president. Its about doing the right thing for the right people who have done so much for us. We passed the whistleblower protection act this year to give whistleblowers in the v. A. The protection they need to go and turn into authorities, those veterans, employees in the Veterans Administration are not doing their job, and we give them the safe harbor they need to encourage us to help root out problems, and were doing that. We passed the accountability bill to open the light of sunshine on the employees of the v. A. And to give the authorities in the v. A. The ability to terminate, fire, if you will, for cause an employee that is not doing the job they should be doing for our veterans. So we had to hold the standard of accountability up a little higher for our employees in the Veterans Administration. Were magnifying choice so veterans can have more choice. We dont want the government to hire all the lawyers and doctors and physicians assistants to service the v. A. , we get them in the private sector as well. The 21st century g. I. Bill, we finally made sure the g. I. Bill applies to everybody, not just world war ii or vietnam warera veterans, but veterans of all conflicts and of all types. We have done everything we could to see to it the benefits we promised them would be there when they left the military are there for them in retirement and in their later life. The sacrifice they make is great and the sacrifices we have made to save our veterans is great. Today veterans come home from the battlefield 90 of the time when they are wounded, they come home, whereas in world war ii, 10 came home, 90 died on the battlefield. But because of the advancements we have made in armor and protection and the Health Care Services we have, a lot of veterans today live that would not have lived just 25 or 30 years ago. And the injuries they sustain are far greater than any injuries we knew in warfare before. The signature illness is ptsd, pose Traumatic Stress syndrome, but part of the body is protected by the new vests which are impenetrable by a bullet. Most of them are from i. E. D. s and explosives and things of that nature. But we have the best health care to provide them with the best possible rehabilitation you can. But you can never really replace a leg or an eye or a body part. Once somebody has sacrificed it forever, they wear the burden of battle and the war. But we have the obligation in the Veterans Administration as the congress of the United States and the house and senate to see to it that we back up those promises our recruiters made when they came to join the military, see to it they get those services from their Veterans Administration. Dr. David shulkin is doing a phenomenal job. My ranking member, jon tester, democrat from montana, is doing a fantastic job. The House Committee is doing a great job. The members of the senate are doing a great job. In a week and a half, well have our final bill of the year which when we pass it, it will make us eight for eight. We will have totally reformed the v. A. And worked with the v. A. To reform it and do it in a way that our veterans get better service, our taxpayers get more accountability for the dollars they spend, and america remains the great country its always been, safe and free because of those who volunteer, fight and are willing to die on behalf of our country. So sometime on the 11th day and hopefully at the 11th hour and the 11th minute of that hour on november 11, you will pause for a minute and remember i told you thats when we celebrate veterans day, because our country decided at that time when the arm cities was signed in world war i, it was the perfect day to remember all those who fought in the past. Lets look around and every time we see a uniform, man or woman in uniform, stop and say thank you for your service because those are the people who are risking their lives so you and i can do whatever it is we choose to do in this land of the free and home of the brave. There are lots of things to be thankful for, but nothing more important than the men and women in the United States military. May god bless our country and god bless our veterans. May god bless the United States of america. And i yield back. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from north dakota. Mr. Hoeven im pleased to have the opportunity to speak on the floor of the senate after my esteemed colleague from the state of georgia. My colleague is the chairman of the Veterans Affairs committee. I just want to express my appreciation for this commitment and his work on behalf of all of our great veterans. Like him, i rise today to speak in tribute to our veterans and men and women in uniform and all that we do for them. This weekend, at events across the country, we will pay tribute to the fine men and women who have served in our Nations Armed forces. Every day, but especially on veterans day, we honor these soldiers who left the comforts of home and family to defend our freedoms, to fight for our way of life. Our freedoms have been secured by the sweat and sacrifice that face men and women who throughout our history have bravely done what was needed to protect our great nation. We also recognize that those who serve do not serve alone. We appreciate, too, the sacrifice of the families and the loved ones who have supported our veterans in their service. This veterans day, we will honor military members from our greatest generation to those men and women fighting in the war on terror today. These americans understand best the words of president Ronald Reagan when he said, quote, freedom is nevermore than one generation away from extinction. We didnt pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same, end quote. These men and women who have fought for and protected our country have given so much, and we cannot do enough to thank them whether they return from active military duty seven days ago or seven decades ago. Although we can never repay our debt of gratitude, one of the most tangible ways we recognize our veteran service is by providing these men and women with Quality Health care and support services, including education and work opportunities. With that debt in mind, let me briefly outline some initiatives that we have been working on to provide for our veterans. Congress has passed significant veterans bills this year, including legislation that holds the v. A. Accountable and ensures that v. A. Employees are putting our veterans first. Legislation that updates and modernizes the v. A. Benefits claims and appeals process, reducing wait times for our veterans. Additionally, one of my Top Priorities is ensuring that our veterans have access to Health Care Options closer to their homes and their families. This includes improving veterans access to services under the Veterans Choice Program and building on the success of the Veterans Care Coordination initiative at the fargo v. A. Medical center in my own state. This effort has decreased the wait times, scheduling and appointment under veterans choice from 24 days a year ago to five or six days at present. This initiative can serve as a model to help address delays through the Veterans Choice Program across the nation. Weve invited secretary shulkin from north dakota to see this work firsthand. Our care core Work Initiative has been expanded to the v. A. Facility in helena, montana, as well and believe it will be expanded to other locations across the country. We provided expansion to the Veterans Choice Program earlier this year and secured dlshes 2. 1 billion in additional funding for the program. This gives us time to work with the v. A. On the next phase of the program. We are working to improve local access to longterm care for our veterans. We secured a commitment from secretary shulkin to work with us on the veterans access to longterm care and Health Services act. Weve now included this legislation excuse me introduced this legislation in the senate and a companion bill has been introduced in the house of representatives. Legislation would remove burdensome red tape that prevents Nursing Homes and other Health Care Providers from accepting veteran patients. Our bill allows the v. A. To enter into provider agreements to qualified health care and extended care facilities bypassing complex federal contracting requirements. This will give veterans more options to access longterm Care Services closer to their homes, to their families, to their loved ones. Additionally, earlier this year Congress Passed and the president signed into law the forever g. I. Bill which improved and extended veterans access to education and workforce opportunities. This is part of our efforts to ensure that were supporting our veterans as they transition back to civilian life and work here at home. These are just a few examples of our efforts to ensure that our veterans have the resources and the support that they have so richly earned. While we cannot say thank you enough, in this way we can honor their courage and their sacrifice. We honor veterans day because we have the greatest veterans in the world who have committed themselves to protect our nation and in so doing have transformed this country into the greatest the world has ever known. May god continue to bless our veterans and this great nation that they have been protecting and to make sure that we honor their Selfless Service for all our men and women in uniform, for all our veterans not only on veterans day, but every day. With that, mr. President , i yield the floor. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from North Carolina. Mr. Tillis thank you, mr. President. I appreciate the kind words of senator hoeven and his affinity towards veterans. Im here to talk about veterans as well and i come at it from three different perspectives. I chair the personnel subcommittee in Senate Armed Services so were trying to work on things to make sure that when somebody into veteran status we try to make it as productive as we can be to make sure they enter back in fully with the workforce, the educational opportunities, all the kinds of opportunities that are afforded them as a result of serving in our armed services. But also i want to take a minute to talk about the, actually the person whob served who never who served who never wore a uniform and thats the husband or the wife or the children that on this veterans day we should also thank. A lot of times when i have an opportunity i live in charlotte. I live in North Carolina where we have nearly 800,000 veterans, one of the largest populations of any one state. I make a point to get to the airport a little bit early so i can go up to the u. S. O. And just spend a moment meeting with people who are there transitions there active duty and veterans just to thank them for their service. And oftentimes ill thank a man or woman and theyll say i didnt serve. My husband or my wife did. I said by virtue of being being a military husband or wife you served as did your children. On this veterans day lets make sure we expand those thank yous to include everybody who ising affected when somebody is deployed to a dangerous time or through peacetime. It is a great sacrifice and one we should always show our gratitude for. As i said, in North Carolina we have about 800,000 veterans. We also have one of the highest military concentrations of any state. Its the home of the Global Response force at fort bragg, over 65,000 men and women serving, 38 generals. You go right down the street, right down just a little bit closer to the coast and you get to jacksonville, North Carolina, where we have camp lejeune. Theres a debate over the pronunciation. So ill pronounce it both ways. But there we have nearly 45 of the marine corps. Many people dont realize that, but stationed out of North Carolina. We could go to seemour, johnson, new river, to jerry point and seeing these men and women serving every day and the ones who served before them who are now part of our veterans population. We should thank them all for their crnt service or their Current Service or their past service. Mr. President , the gentleman from arkansas, i want to thank you for your service because you served bravely in combat positions before entering the u. S. Senate. Thats another amazing thing about the veterans, is they continue to serve. If you go to a coffee shop, you may see a huddle of veterans around somebody thats organized the event. Thats probably a veteran making sure that veterans are speaking to each other and working through some of the challenges that some of them have when theyre put in very difficult situations. Or if you go into a community center, youll almost always see a veteran there continuing to serve even after they have ended their vif duty active duty service. On veterans day we should go to every person we know is a veteran and thank them. We should make sure that anybody you see in uniform ill be in the airport probably thursday evening or friday. Ill make it a point to go to every person i see in uniform and thank them for their service because we owe that to them for all that they do for us. Now, i think that on the one hand, we need to think about veterans especially on veterans day. But as senator hoeven said, we need to think about them every day. And as a u. S. Senator, the way we do that is not just by thinking, but by doing. What more can we do in my capacity on the Veterans Affairs committee or in my capacity on Senate Armed Services to make service easier and safer and after they move out of active status to veteran status what more can we do for them . There are a lot of things we can do. One, we need to make sure they have an opportunity to get a job that in many cases will leverage the skills that they learned when they were in the military into privatesector jobs. Mr. President , you know that you and i sponsored a bill, the valor act, that will be brought up before the senate that helps to actually expedite the process of having those who have served in the military to get hired, to make it easier for employers to put them in apprenticeship positions where maybe they leverage some of the skills they learned while they were in active duty but get them in good paying jobs to support themselves and their families. There are a number of other things we have to do for other who are veterans that i think is particularly important. When we talk about post Traumatic Stress or we talk about traumatic brain injury, those are in some cases invisible wounds of war. We need to make sure and we need to understand why is it that nearly every day 20 veterans take their lives through suicide. To what extent could that be something we simply didnt know about that veteran . Why are they disproportionately more likely to do it . Many of them incidentally, the vince today who have this disproportionately high amount of suicide incidents are veterans from the vietnam war. We need to go back and figure out how we can reach out to that population a significant number of whom never even seek v. A. Medical services to provide them with the resources that they need to work through these sorts of challenges. We need to make sure that health care is available across the map, and we need to recognize that that challenge in North Carolina is vastly different than the same challenge in, say, south dakota. We have a state population of ten million people, almost a million veterans or approaching that when you include the spouses and families, well above it. And we need to make sure that were Getting Health Care and services where its most convenient for them. I think some of that will be provided on what the choice to go to the doctor that makes the most sense for them. A lot of it will provide a brick and mortar presence at the v. A. So that they can go and be amongst other people who are actually dealing with the same sorts of circumstances. And theyre actually being served by about half the population in our veterans hospitals and our Health Care Centers are veterans themselves. This is a very important part of the broader solution we need to provide our veterans as we continue to build a relationship with them for the rest of their lives. Mr. President , well never finish all the work we should do. Well keep on making installments into a debt we can never repay. But what we need to do on november 11 is support our veterans by showing our gratitude and our thanks for their service. So on this veterans day, take an extra effort to thank a veteran. Thank a veteran spouse. Thank a veteran child, the child of a veteran for their service to this great nation. Well never ever be able to fully repay the debt that we owe them, but we can sure make a lot of installments as individual citizens and as members of this congress and as long as im in the u. S. Senate, thats what i intend to do. Mr. President , once again, thank you for your service and thank all the men and women who have served before. And with that, i yield the floor. Sunday at 4 00 p. M. Eastern on railamerica, a cbs news Vietnam Special report. Whether it is due to the itmies clever conditions, seems clear the American Military offensive along the dmz has bogged down, like the marines in the mud. Then at 6 00 on american artifacts, we will tour the National Archives exhibit remembering vietnam. At 8 00 on the presidency, the 1967 Lyndon Johnson vietnam war press conference. Made our statement as to what we would do if we had communist aggression in that part of the world in 1954. We said we would stand with those people in the face of common danger, and the time came we had to put up or shut up, and we put up and were there. War, 50 the vietnam years later, on cspan3