Andre Carson: “I remember, Mr. Speaker, the heroism of the Buffalo soldiers serving in the vast West as our Nation grew to the Pacific…”

“I remember, Mr. Speaker, the heroism of the Buffalo soldiers serving in the vast West as our Nation grew to the Pacific many years ago, a fine tradition. Today, it is altogether fitting that we honor and recognize the service of minority veterans in our armed forces during World War II. All together, some 1.2 million African Americans served alongside 300,000 Hispanic Americans; and 50,000 Asian Americans served during World War II, shoulder-to-shoulder with other Americans, in the common cause of defeating the Axis powers. The ordinary ground-pounding soldiers served uncommonly well, with great courage, in segregated units. The trials and tribulations of the black men who wanted to fly, our Tuskegee Airmen, who grew wings to show the way for a generation; the extraordinary valor of our soldiers of Asian descent, fighting fiercely in Europe, even as many of their families were imprisoned in camps in our West; our Native American code-talkers who used their languages to puzzle and defeat Japanese eavesdroppers, far from their tribal lands.”