I want to take a few minutes today to honor Cary Jones, an Oregonian retiring after a long career in the Coast Guard and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The bottom line is Mr. Jones has embraced and embodied the essence of public service throughout his distinguished career. He joined the Coast Guard in 1976 and was stationed in Honolulu, Seattle, and Coos Bay. He served for several years aboard the USCGC Boutwell, a high-endurance cutter used to intercept smuggling vessels. Mr. Jones left the Coast Guard in 2001 as a senior chief yeoman, and he could have sailed off into an easy retirement. Instead, he went to work for the VA, where he would spend nearly two decades helping Oregon veterans. He served in a number of roles at the Portland VA Medical Center, but in every capacity he sought to do right by veterans. He worked with my Portland staff for years, and if you ever want to get one of them going, just ask how helpful Cary Jones was. They will tell you he worked on more than 10,000 congressional inquiries, each of which represented an attempt to help an Oregon veteran or military family. Cary Jones is a shining example of what public service is supposed to be all about. He has always been one of the good guys, in it for the right reasons, and always laser-focused on lifting up people who need a little bit of help. Mr.…
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