On the recordDecember 14, 2017
I don't intend to take 30 minutes, but the time that I do spend is very important, because I want to honor a very, very special person. First of all, let me start off by wishing you a Merry Christmas. I say that because, as we are getting into the season, many of us are thinking about family and friends and spending Christmastime at home, which I hope to be able to do as well. Every Christmas season my thought goes back about 73 years ago. You see, my dad was a medic in World War II, and December 16, which will be just a few days from now, will be the 73rd anniversary of one of the largest, most significant battles of World War II: the Battle of the Bulge. My father was a medic in the Battle of the Bulge, and I still remember the stories he used to tell of the cold weather and the snow and how, when the Germans broke through the Siegfried Line, they decimated American forces--we lost thousands and thousands of troops in those few days--how the snow was just so heavy and so thick that many were trapped in their foxholes, unable to escape. Many retreated back to areas of safety and the lines behind. But I don't want to talk about my dad here today. I want to talk about someone else, a dear friend of mine, someone I got to serve in the Georgia Legislature with. It was another young Georgian from Spalding County who was a pilot in the Army Air Corps. Now, Captain John Yates was not what you may think of.…
