Jim Saxton: “let me take a minute at the outset to talk a little bit about the individual after whom this bill is named. The…”

“let me take a minute at the outset to talk a little bit about the individual after whom this bill is named. The gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stump) comes from Arizona. After the announcement of the gentleman's retirement, this bill was named the Bob Stump Military Authorization Bill of 2003. Let me discuss the lifetime service of the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stump) that many Members may not know about because it is quite remarkable. At the age of 16 in 1943, during of course World War II, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stump) joined the Navy and for the rest of the war he played a very active role taking part in the invasion of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and of course those were very dangerous places to be in those days. But having known the gentleman from Arizona for the last 18 years, dangerous places have never fazed him. He certainly is not a bashful guy with respect to those types of things. In 1959, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stump) ran for the first time for the Arizona State legislature and worked his way through the State legislature until he became, in the early 1970s, the President of the State Senate. In 1977, he came here to Congress and became a member of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs and the Committee on Armed Services, and again worked his way to the chairmanship of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs and then on the Committee on Armed Services.”