On the recordDecember 19, 2023
as this day comes to an end, a very sad chapter in the history of this body comes to an end, mercifully. I stand here before you and my colleagues as the last Vietnam veteran serving in the U.S. Senate, a retired Navy captain, a grandson of a Gold Star Mother, and from a family who believes in the Navy blue. I want to say to the hundreds of military families who have endured the uncertainty of whether or not their loved ones--their husbands, their fathers, their brothers, their sisters--were going to be able to assume the promotions that they have earned for their years of service in protecting our country and in helping to defend our Constitution that this sad chapter has come to an end. I want to apologize to those families. I spoke last week and urged that we turn this page and move on, and I am grateful that that has happened. I want to especially commend the work behind the scenes of our chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed, an Army veteran, for the work that he has done in enabling us to end this sad chapter. I remember serving in a number of tours in Southeast Asia in the Vietnam war. In some of those years, we were not home for Christmas, for the holidays. We were on the other side of the world, and our families were back here in the States. Those were not happy days for us, and I know the last months have not been happy days for a lot of people in the armed services who deserve better.…
