Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate the life of Technical Sergeant Seymour ``Sy'' Kaplan, a wounded warrior, a World War II veteran, and a decades-long advocate for other veterans living in the Coachella Valley of southern California. I thank my colleague, a fellow Californian and member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Dr. Raul Ruiz, for his work on this bill, which will designate a brand-new VA outpatient clinic in Palm Desert, California, the Sy Kaplan VA Clinic. The state-of-the-art Palm Desert clinic provides primary care, behavioral health services, and preventative medicine to thousands of veterans in the Inland Empire as part of VA's Loma Linda Healthcare System. Sergeant Kaplan enlisted in the military in 1942 and served overseas as a combat engineer in northern Africa, Italy, and France. He fought under General Patton in the Battle of the Bulge, which helped ensure Allied victory in the Second World War. In 1945, he was seriously wounded by an enemy mortar attack during a bridge-building mission in Czechoslovakia. For his heroism, Sergeant Kaplan earned three battle stars and two Purple Hearts and returned home 100 percent disabled. His injuries did not impede Sergeant Kaplan's unwavering commitment to our Nation's veterans, however. For 25 years, he served as commander of Disabled American Veterans Chapter 78 in the Coachella Valley.…”