On the recordMay 4, 2010
I want to thank Mr. Schiff for those excellent remarks about this bill and the need for this proper recognition. Again, it is no more, no less than just recognizing the Marine Corps as part of one fighting team, the Navy and Marine Corps. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Mr. Schiff for also mentioning Gunnery Sergeant Lee Ermey, who has become the national spokesman. In fact, there is a Web site called MarineCause.Com that anybody that would like to see more about this issue and maybe join in on a petition, they could do that. We did a news conference about 5 weeks ago with the Marine Corps League, and I want to thank Mike Blum and the League for hosting this news conference. It was in the Cannon Building. Lee Ermey came. He is quite an interesting American. He is quite a patriot as well. At the news conference, the speakers that day, I made the opening remarks, and then Senator Pat Roberts, who has put a companion bill in on the Senate side, S. 504, and he himself is a retired Marine officer, he spoke. Then we had this young man named Eddie Wright. I never will forget him. Eddie Wright lost both hands in Iraq for this country. He came, and at the news conference he told the story of how much he loved the Navy. He said, ``Here I am a Marine. I would have died without the corpsmen saving my life.'' He said, ``We are one family. That is why I think this legislation is so important.'' Again, Eddie Wright has lost both hands.
