Vietnam Helicopter Crew Memorial Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. AMODEI. I thank my colleague from the Silver State and also the ranking member from the subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, I really shouldn't be here talking about this bill right now. The reason this bill was necessitated is that the public law says that the Secretary of the Army can have monuments placed only in those sections of Arlington National Cemetery that are designated by the Secretary for such placement and only on land that the Secretary deems not suitable for burial. There are about 30 million square feet at Arlington National Cemetery when you take the presently under- construction addition and the planned additional constructed addition-- 30 million square feet. This bill seeks this amount of space out of 30 million square feet.

For those of you who are challenged by visual numbers, that is 5 square feet that they have asked for for all services--not just the Army but all services--and to commemorate the fact that they were nearly 10 percent of the casualties in the Vietnam war--the Helicopter war.

I understand graves to be the primary mission for Arlington National Cemetery, and I respect that. I understand that there is a concern about being overrun with requests for memorials, and I concur with that concern. My problem is that that public law doesn't say there will be no memorials at Arlington National Cemetery.

By the decision that the administration at Arlington has made that says you can't have 5 square feet, they have basically changed the law effectively to: there are no memorials. The high bar that there should be for memorials, in effect, has been set up there, touching the ceiling. If these folks--for all services and for nearly 10 percent of the casualties in the Vietnam war--can't qualify, I wonder who can. So the necessity for this legislation: 5 square feet.

By the way, in the last quarter of a century, do you know how many memorials have been approved for placement at Arlington? You don't need all of the fingers on one hand. Four. You need all of the fingers; you just don't need the thumb. Four. We are not overrun with memorials.

As we sit here on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor and as we talk again about some Vietnam veterans, isn't it funny that we now have to come to Congress and run a bill to respect those folks who, by the way, probably kept a heck of a lot more names off that wall a little farther down the Mall from here.

I thank the bipartisan support that I have received from Members in both Houses--nationwide support. My request is this: if we want to say ``no more memorials at Arlington,'' then we ought to say that in the law. We shouldn't talk about space not being available for graves, and we shouldn't talk about people who represent almost 10 percent of the casualties in a conflict not being entitled to 5 square feet. By the way, at no cost to the government and with maintenance at no cost to the government.

With that in hand, I urge bipartisan nationwide support to do the right thing for almost 5,000 people who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the Helicopter war in the service, in these--what were then--cutting- edge iconic machines.

I thank my colleagues.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source