U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson Memorial Va Clinic Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee for yielding and for bringing this bill. Especially I thank Mr. Self for his leadership in working for so long on this important bill.

Mr. Speaker, it is not often that we will walk amongst people who are larger than life. During my years in Congress, I have been honored to serve with two people whom I would put in that category: Sam Johnson and John Lewis. Both of them have amazing stories that are well chronicled.

I got to know Sam over the years that I served with him. It was a treat to be able to just sit down and hear stories and talk to him about the things I had heard about him because Sam was truly larger than life, Mr. Speaker. We heard stories of his early days as an Air Force pilot.

This was back in the days before the Apollo missions when our Air Force pilots were trying to push the boundaries to figure out just how far we could go, how fast we could go, and how high we could go. They were doing things that had never been done before.

I had heard a story that Sam challenged Buzz Aldrin. Buzz, of course, famously was the commander of the Apollo mission, the first mission to land on the Moon. He was the second man to walk on the Moon after Neil Armstrong. I heard that story, and one time after Sam had left Congress, I had the opportunity to meet Buzz Aldrin.

I said: I want to ask you about this story. I heard that Sam Johnson challenged you to a fighter pilot race.

He just lights up. Buzz Aldrin was just incredibly accomplished and was a national hero in his own right. He lights up at the words: Sam Johnson.

He said: That is not the whole story. Yes, Sam Johnson challenged me to a fighter pilot race. We would practice every day, and I would usually beat Sam.

He said that the night before the race, Sam had souped up his plane, and, sure enough, the next day we had this race, and Sam just flies by and wins the race.

Sam was just an incredible person. He had an unbelievable sense of humor. I got to see that.

Later on in life when we both had our physical challenges, we challenged each other to a scooter race. It was not quite the same thing, but I never saw him laugh as much as at that because, again, Sam was just an amazing person who for all the things he went through still maintained a great sense of humor while he exhibited so much leadership.

Nonetheless, we know the story that Sam lived through 7 years in the Hanoi Hilton. He wrote a book about it. As I started to get to know Sam, I said: I am not going to really truly understand Sam unless I read the book. The book is called ``Captive Warriors.'' So one week when I was going out of town, I got the book, and it was one of those books you get not for easy reading because it was a difficult read. I teared up a lot because he goes into great detail of the things that happened to him during those 7 years.

As Mr. Self talked about, he was one of the elite men who was being held captive, and so they held him in a special place, a separate place. They put Sam in shackles for a number of those years he was held. They broke almost every bone in Sam's body, but they never broke Sam's spirit. That is the one thing I think that probably frustrated the Viet Cong so much is that for all the things they did to him physically and mentally they were never going to break Sam because he loved this country. He loved his commitment to service, and he maintained that throughout those 7 years.

We know the medals he won: two Silver Stars, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star with Valor, and two Purple Hearts.

Sam wrote a line in his book, ``Captive Warriors,'' that I will read: ``If hell is here on Earth, it is located on an oddly shaped city block in downtown Hanoi, Vietnam.''

This was a man that I had the true, distinct honor of serving with because of who he was. When you met Sam, you were not let down. You truly understood you were in the presence of greatness.

May we all strive to have the kind of character and integrity that Sam Johnson had when he lived his life. Let's honor him today by passing Mr. Self's legislation to name the VA hospital in Plano, Texas, after my dear friend, an American hero, Sam Johnson.

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