Mike Pence: “But one of the things that was a great privilege for me was, Mr. Speaker, along with the gentleman from Indiana…”

“But one of the things that was a great privilege for me was, Mr. Speaker, along with the gentleman from Indiana, thinking of the 1,500 Hoosier National Guard who were in Afghanistan and thinking, Mr. Speaker, of the holiday season that was upon us, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Chocola) and I developed what we came to call Operation Holiday Greeting. And it resulted in our inviting our constituents, three quarters of a million people in north central Indiana and three quarters of a million people in eastern Indiana, to send in holiday greeting cards to soldiers. We announced the initiative on November 11; and within 10 days we received, Mr. Speaker, more than 25,000 lovingly handmade holiday greeting cards that we were able to take with us to Operation Enduring Freedom. This photograph captures just one of literally dozens and dozens of scenes where the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Chocola), the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Flake), and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Davis) and I were handing out greeting cards to the delight of soldiers who read them.”