Xavier Becerra: “I recall with respect and affection my friend, colleague, and fellow marine, Frank Tejeda. Two years ago Frank stood at…”

“I recall with respect and affection my friend, colleague, and fellow marine, Frank Tejeda. Two years ago Frank stood at this very microphone and gave a special order commemorating the courage of those marines who fought for and died in pursuit of the capture of Iwo Jima. Unbeknownst to Frank that evening, watching on C-SPAN was a former Navy corpsman who called Frank the next day. He was unaware that Frank had survived war wounds received in Vietnam. That corpsman was in fact the doc who had provided aid to Frank on the battlefield and placed him aboard the helicopter when he was medivac'd. That chance appearance of Frank on C-SPAN and the awareness of that Navy corpsman set in process a series of events that resulted in Frank receiving posthumously the Silver Star. Among other events that day on the battlefield in Vietnam, Frank had gone out into a rice paddy under fire, had attacked an enemy position, had killed the enemy gunner and had pulled back into a tree line, at which point he saw the body of a marine in the rice paddy. Again under fire he went out to that marine, recovered the body and brought the body back to safety.”