Political Quotes

“On Saturday the Nation celebrated Medal of Honor Day. This rarely celebrated holiday was designated by Congress in 1990 but only officially observed once, on March 25, 1991. I was pleased to see our most decorated war heroes honored last Friday during a ceremony at the White House. The Medal of Honor is the highest military honor our Nation can bestow. According to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, there have been 3,498 recipients, and 75 of those individuals are still living today. Just last year, I was able to recognize one of Pennsylvania's very own Medal of Honor recipients, late Army Specialist Ross McGinnis. I assisted in naming a post office in Knox, Clarion County, for Specialist McGinnis, who died in December 2006 in Iraq. Specialist McGinnis was a native son of Knox, Pennsylvania. While on patrol in eastern Baghdad on December 4, 2006, an unidentified insurgent positioned on a nearby rooftop threw a grenade into a Humvee carrying McGinnis and other troops. Specialist McGinnis threw his body on top of the grenade, absorbing all the fragments of the grenade with his own body and saving the lives of his fellow soldiers. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President George W. Bush in 2008. Mr. Speaker, another such hero, Foster Joseph Sayers, is from my hometown of Howard, Pennsylvania. He received the Medal of Honor for acts of bravery near Thionville, France, on November 12, 1944.…”