Barry Loudermilk: “I thank the gentleman, my friend and colleague, the ranking member, for yielding this time. This is one of those pieces…”

“I thank the gentleman, my friend and colleague, the ranking member, for yielding this time. This is one of those pieces of legislation that really touches your heart. As a veteran, I have had the opportunity to serve with some of America's finest, and I have also experienced the loss and the families that have lost loved ones in defense of this Nation. But my story with the Gold Star goes back to even when I was a child. You see, my dad was a veteran. He was a medic in World War II. He was involved in the D-Day invasion. He went all the way through from Normandy, through France, into Belgium, and then on into Germany. I remember when I was young, I was going through this photo album that my mom had, and as I was flipping through seeing the pictures that my dad brought back from World War II, there was this interesting picture of a banner hanging inside of a church. And I remember when I asked her about this, because my children recently, just a few years ago, were going through the album not long before my mom and my dad passed away. They saw that same picture and they asked the same question I asked: What is this? This banner had names, various names of people, and next to the names was a silver star or a gold star.…”