The Heroic Acts of James Shaw, Jr., and Tammy Jo Schultz

Floor Speech

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Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, malevolent actions and accidents give an opportunity for people to rise to heroic actions. America is a country familiar with heroes.

At a sad and awful event this weekend in Nashville, Davidson County, at a Waffle House where four individuals were killed and four injured by a crazed individual with an AR-15, a man named James Shaw, Jr., rallied all of his courage and strength to rise to the occasion of heroics, to get the assailant, take his gun from him, and to save his life and other people's lives.

James Shaw, Jr., is a lifetime Nashvillian. He didn't plan to be a hero that day, but he rose to the occasion. I take my hat off to him and commend him for his actions in saving other lives.

Just a week or so earlier, we had a Southwest Airlines plane that would have crashed if it weren't for a great pilot, possibly, a plane that, tragically, had a piece of the wing come off and fly into the airplane and cause the death of a passenger and chaos on the plane.

The pilot, a trained Navy fighter pilot, Tammy Jo Schultz, stayed calm and brought that plane in safely without any other loss of life or injuries. She is a Sully part 2: Sullenberger, who took that plane in New York and landed it in the river and saved a lot of people's lives.

We all honored Sully, as we should and should have. We need to honor Tammy Jo Schultz in the same way. She is Sullenberger part 2. And James Shaw, Jr., of Nashville is a hero of the same dimension, and he saved many American lives. Those acts need to be remembered, reflected upon, and honored. I do so today, and I know other Members of this House do as well.

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