Vicky Hartzler: “And my fellow colleagues, I wanted to share with you a picture that I have in my office, and it is my favorite picture.…”

“And my fellow colleagues, I wanted to share with you a picture that I have in my office, and it is my favorite picture. It is the famous picture of President and then- General George Washington on his knees praying at Valley Forge. Of course, we all remember from our history lessons the story of what happened during that time. But the winter at Valley Forge was a terribly, terribly trying time for the Continental Army. They had suffered a lot of defeats that fall, and they went into a very cold, harsh winter with very, very limited supplies, and the stories that come from that are just heartbreaking. There were 12,000 men that were encamped. Many of them did not even have a tent or a shelter. Several of them did not even have a blanket. And as you know, here in Washington, D.C., and back home in Missouri, the weather has started to turn cold. I think it was about 30 degrees this morning. And to think about what it would have been like to have to sleep out in the cold with no blanket during that time. And of course, snow came along. We have heard stories about how many of the men did not even have shoes. They had marched so much that fall and had gone through such harsh battles that their shoes had fallen apart. And we have all seen pictures and heard stories of how their feet bled. Even in the snow, there were foot tracks like that. And what is worse, many of them didn't even have food. This was the situation of 12,000 men.…”