Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I rise this sad day to comment on the passing of a great patriot, Senator Daniel Inouye. He fought for his country as…”

“I rise this sad day to comment on the passing of a great patriot, Senator Daniel Inouye. He fought for his country as part of the Greatest Generation and served his State with distinction for more than 50 years. We were all honored to know him and blessed by his sacrifice in defense of American freedom. We served together on the Armed Services Committee and later on the Appropriations Committee as well. Danny's insight was invaluable to our Nation's defense and military policy. He did make America stronger. I had the pleasure of working with him when we traveled together to Bosnia to visit our troops in the very early stages of that conflict. We later went to the Middle East on a CODEL with Senator Stevens as well. One of the pictures in my office is of Senator Stevens, Senator Inouye, Senator Snowe, and myself in our helmets and flak jackets the first time we flew into Sarajevo in the early 1990s, when the Serbs had still been shooting from the hills into the airport. In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, Senator Inouye and a number of other World War II veterans gathered at the Smithsonian to reminisce about their time in battle. Senator Inouye recalled the morning of December 7 at Pearl Harbor, when he recognized that the men in the Japanese planes looked like him, and he said he knew then his life would never be the same.…”