Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4955) to name the community-based outpatient clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, as the ``Henry Parham VA Clinic''. The Clerk read the title of the bill. The text of the bill is as follows: H.R. 4955 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. FINDINGS. Congress finds the following: (1) Henry Parham was born in Emporia, Virginia, in November 1921. (2) At age 21, Henry Parham was drafted into the Army and shipped out to England in 1943 with the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion in preparation for the D-Day invasions. (3) The 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, a segregated Army unit, consisted of approximately 700 African-American soldiers with the mission of hoisting barrage balloons designed to entangle incoming German planes and prevent them from conducting strafing runs on ground troops. (4) On June 6, 1944, Private First Class Henry Parham and his section of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion landed at Omaha Beach. With the threat of enemy sniper and rifle fire ever present, PFC Parham's unit performed their duties, hoisting their barrage balloons 2,000 feet into the air over the beachhead in Normandy.…”