On the recordFebruary 25, 2013
I thank the gentleman for yielding. Sam Johnson is an American hero, and everybody in this House knows that. He's an American hero for all kinds of ways that he served this country. Many of the people here are going to talk about those ways, and every one of them are important. I read Sam's book. It's an awesome book. It makes you cry at points; it makes you struggle. But it also expresses the kind of a man and, quite frankly, the kind of a family Sam Johnson has. Sam was a guy with a broken leg, dislocated shoulders, who looked them straight in the eye and spit in their face and told them to take their best shot. And he suffered for it, he suffered unmercifully for it, but he never gave in to the enemy. He always stood his ground, to his detriment, and it harmed him in so many physical ways. And yet the thing that makes me always tear up is you read the part of the book where Sam steps off that plane, when we finally repatriated our prisoners, and saluted and said, Colonel Sam Johnson reporting for duty, sir. And Sam reports for duty. People say, Who do you want to have your back in a foxhole? But people also say, Who do you want to have your back in Congress? I want Sam Johnson to have my back in Congress. He's a friend. He's one of my best friends in this Congress. I've gotten to know him very well. He and I go to a Christian retreat together almost every year. And that's one of the things you notice from the book. Sam didn't talk about himself.…
