Political Quotes

“I am pleased to introduce legislation to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to designate one city each year as a World War II city, beginning with Wilmington, NC, as America's first World War II City. The names of the 10,000 Tarheels, who paid the ultimate price in World War II are memorialized on the bulkhead of the battleship USS North Carolina in downtown Wilmington. During World War II, the USS North Carolina, known affectionately throughout the Navy as the ``Showboat'', ``participated in every major naval offensive in the Pacific area of operations and earned 15 battle stars. She steamed over 300,000 miles. Although Japanese radio claimed six times that North Carolina had been sunk, she survived. After serving as a training vessel for midshipmen, North Carolina was decommissioned June 27, 1947 and placed in the Inactive Reserve Fleet in Bayonne, New Jersey, for the next 14 years. In 1958 the announcement of her impending scrapping led to a statewide campaign by citizens of North Carolina to save the ship and bring her back to her home state. The Save Our Ship, SOS, campaign was successful and the battleship arrived in her current berth on October 2, 1961. She was dedicated on April 29, 1962, as the State's memorial to its World War II veterans At home, North Carolina's coast was a war zone. On April 13-14, 1942, the first U-boat, German U-85, was sunk off the North Carolina Coast. Mr.…”