Orrin Hatch: “I want to take a moment to pay tribute to a person I loved, appreciated, and worked with for all these years--all of my…”

“I want to take a moment to pay tribute to a person I loved, appreciated, and worked with for all these years--all of my 36 years in the Senate--and to bid a fond farewell to our dearly departed friend, the senior Senator from Hawaii, Dan Inouye. In addition to being a distinguished United States Senator, Senator Inouye was many things: a Pearl Harbor survivor, a Medal of Honor recipient, a father, a grandfather, and a loving husband to his wife Irene. As a volunteer with the Red Cross, young Daniel Inouye tended to the wounded in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor. During World War II, when the Federal Government was placing thousands of his fellow Japanese Americans in internment camps, Senator Inouye was one of many Asian Americans who petitioned the government for the right to serve their country in the military. His petition was successful, and he served heroically. In fact, the story of Senator Inouye's military service has become the stuff of legend here in the Senate and throughout the country. In 2000, Senator Inouye, along with 21 of his fellow Japanese- American World War II veterans, was awarded the Medal of Honor, our Nation's highest honor for valor. In 1959, when Hawaii achieved statehood, he was elected the State's first full member of the House of Representatives. Three years later, in 1962, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he would serve for five decades, the second longest tenure in this Chamber's history.…”