Honoring Our Armed Forces

Mr. REED. Madam President, I understand there is a unanimous consent agreement. I ask unanimous consent it be modified so I may be recognized now according to the time allocated under the unanimous consent agreement.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

HONORING OUR ARMED FORCES

Mr. REED. Madam President, as a preliminary point, let me say I had the privilege yesterday to go up to Walter Reed Army Hospital to visit soldiers who have been injured in action defending this country and also to visit the rehabilitation facilities there. And any time you go to Walter Reed, you are inspired by the courage, the selfless service, and the sacrifice of these outstanding young men and women. But I want to relay something I think is particularly appropriate but is not often said.

As I was leaving the room of an injured soldier from the 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, his parents-his mother and father-were there, and his father stopped me and said: Senator, I want to make sure you know something. The people in this hospital are extraordinary. They have treated my son with extraordinary care. He is my child, but all the people I have known here in this hospital treat my son as if he was their child.

That is an extraordinary compliment to the men and women of Walter Reed, the Army Medical Corps, the doctors, the nurses, the technicians, the occupational therapists, the janitors, the clerks. And it is not just Walter Reed, it is Bethesda, it is the Air Force Health System.

I do not think we spend enough time thanking those valiant soldiers, sailors, and air men and women for what they do. And certainly those soldiers who have suffered and are being treated, rehabilitated, we owe them more than we can ever repay. We have to match their courage with wise and thoughtful policy.