Robert Smith: “I publicly commend my senior colleague from Oregon, with whom it has been my great pleasure to stand on this issue and…”

“I publicly commend my senior colleague from Oregon, with whom it has been my great pleasure to stand on this issue and ask for justice for our State. I want to point out a very pivotal role that Senator Strom Thurmond played in breaking a logjam, if you will, for the State of Oregon. For a very long time now, Senator Wyden and I have been trying to get answers from the Air Force for widows and orphans, literally, as to why their loved ones, these airmen, perished in this tragic accident. It was Senator Thurmond who, when he heard of Senator Wyden's hold on this nomination--and, frankly, my encouragement of that--that he intervened in our behalf. I acknowledge it. I thank him. He asked me to go immediately with him to the cloakroom where we got on the phone with the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force. We laid out the terms of a deal that will include a new investigation into C-130 air transports generally, and this one in particular. It was promised to Oregon's families, that these widows and orphans would be given the information they need as to why this accident occurred.”