On the recordMarch 22, 1999
If the Senator would allow me to make one clarification to your statement. I want to make it clear I said I served with others who were in combat. I was a ground officer who helped strap them in, who checked their radios and their communications. Occasionally, I did get to ride along with them in a back seat, but I never put myself in the combat category with those brave men who, day after day, were strapped in to fly combat. But I lived with them, slept there in the same tents, ate in the same mess, used to go up and observe what they had to do. But let me tell you, I think we have to put ourselves in that cockpit right now as if we were qualified to be in combat and show that the Congress of the United States wants to support them. I think that is absolutely essential.
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