Recognizing Importance Of Teaching Students About Veterans

Floor Speech

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Mr. GUTHRIE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 897 recognizing the importance of teaching elementary and secondary school students about the sacrifices that veterans have made throughout the history of the Nation. Over the recent Veterans Day holiday, I was proud to attend many ceremonies and parades held across my district to honor our veterans. Through these events, and many others, students learn the important role past generations played in our Nation's history. We watch with admiration the accomplishments of our servicemen and -women, both past and present. And as we come upon another holiday season, we are thankful for their perseverance and dedication, and are again reminded how important our military, their families, and veterans are to our Nation's history and future.

I want to share one experience just a few weeks ago. We finished voting early, and I went for a walk around the Capitol on a beautiful fall day. As I was walking down the Mall, I walked past the World War II Memorial. I stood there, and there were older people looking at the Pacific side and the Atlantic side, and I was trying to think in my mind what they were thinking. Were they remembering a friend or colleague that didn't come back? A lot of them were sharing that experience with grandchildren or great-grandchildren. You could just see at the memorial the pride and the tears in our veterans.

As I continued to walk, I went down to the Korean war memorial, and that is one that my family has personal experience with. My uncle, 12 years before I was born, in 1952 was killed. And so my grandfather and grandmother always talked about the sacrifice of veterans, particularly losing their oldest son in the Korean war.
Then further along the Mall there is the memorial to Abraham Lincoln with the Gettysburg Address dedicating a cemetery to our veterans.

And then the one that is so moving, as I was walking back, the Vietnam Wall. As you see families at the Vietnam Wall, a lot of them will take a piece of paper and pencil and will sketch out the name of someone. As I was watching them doing that, I was standing there wondering, is that a husband that didn't come home? Is that a father for a child they never met?

And then I turned back to get back for an evening meeting. As you head to the Capitol, you understand what it is all about. The thing that you see most and foremost is the dome over the building in which we are standing. I remember walking back after having these moments with veterans and remembering veterans and looking at the dome all of the way walking back and saying, that dome is opportunity, it is freedom, it is hope. But not just for us; it is hope for the world. People look to that dome throughout the world.

It hit me that the Mall is the story of veterans. And the reason the Mall is the story of veterans and memorials to veterans, this country, this Nation and this dome and this symbol is about freedom, and we wouldn't have one without the other. It was an emotional day for me as I was walking back.

I have been talking to schools as I mentioned earlier during Veterans Day, and one of the things I talked to them about was about Francis Scott Key and ``The Star-Spangled Banner'' and the history and the actual meaning of those words in that song. I always end it with--I will never pretend that I can improve on Francis Scott Key, but the last line, It is the land of the free and the home of the brave, I would say we need to think it is the land of the free because of the brave.

I think it is important that our students are taught, and in our home State of Kentucky, Veterans Day is a school day, but it is mandated that each school teaches about veterans by being in session on Veterans Day. I think it is important that we do this across this country, and I ask my colleagues to support this resolution.

Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers, and so I yield back the balance of my time.

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