Political Quotes

“I have a young sailor, a bosun's mate, Richard Ying, that was hurt severely aboard the U.S.S. Cole. My staff has talked to him several times. I tried to call and he was in rehabilitation. He is back home, and they expect him to be back in Windber, Pennsylvania, by Friday. The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) and I had anticipated trying to go to visit the U.S.S. Cole over the weekend just to see how it was going. All of us sympathize with the families who lost loved ones, and all of us feel badly about the ones that were wounded. But there is something else here that shows how good our troops are operating. It was marvelous. I went aboard the U.S.S. Roberts when it hit a mine. It had a hole about the size of a bus in the side. This hole was even bigger, 40 feet. People do not realize how close it came to sinking. We are talking about a ship that was in the harbor in water that was calm, and it almost sank. If it had not been for the heroic effort of this crew, actually using buckets to bail out the water, we would have probably lost that ship. So I want to commend the men and women that served on the Cole for the phenomenal job they did in saving this ship. All of us hate to see our men and women in harm's way. We have responsibilities and we cannot withdraw from those responsibilities. But one thing for sure, that ship was saved by the dedication of the men and women who served aboard the Cole.”