Tony Thurmond: “for the past week, the United States Army Reserve has had a number of events to help celebrate the 90th anniversary of…”

“for the past week, the United States Army Reserve has had a number of events to help celebrate the 90th anniversary of their founding. Appropriately, the United States Senate, led by Senator Helms who was joined by 28 of our colleagues, passed a resolution last night commending the Army Reserve and its citizen-soldiers on an impressive heritage and on the invaluable contributions they have made to keeping the United States free and safe. As a former Army Reservist, I was naturally interested in reading this resolution and I am certain you can imagine my surprise when I discovered that it was also a tribute to me and the service I rendered the United States as a Soldier. I was, and am, humbled and flattered by this very touching gesture, you have touched the heart of this old 'trooper', and I thank each of you for your kind act. I join each of you in commending all those who have served in the Army Reserve throughout its 90-year history, particularly those men and women who serve today. In this era of shrinking force structure and defense budgets, we will increasingly rely on our reserve forces to meet the security and foreign policy goals of the United States. We should be grateful that there is no shortage of patriotic Americans willing to endure the hardships and demands of reserve service, we are all better off their efforts.”