The Bizarre Conversation of Representatives

[thedrifter]

The Bizarre Conversation of Representatives
Robert K. Dornan (R - CA) and James M. Talent (R - MO)


The Following is the unchanged transcript of the 2-23-95 discussion on the floor of the House of Representatives, as reported in the Congressional Record. It took Representative Dornan until about Midnight to say everything you see here. The general theme of the discussion was the necessity of changing the Constitution of the United States in order to allow laws against flag desecration, especially in light of the anniversary of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima.
It is a very large and unwieldy document, so I have included links to the most interesting sections. These sections have also been highlighted in Bold Text for your viewing ease.
Not one word has been changed

Feb-23-95 (HOUSE) TIME: 2310
Note: This document is the unofficial version of the Congressional Record. The printed Congressional Record produced by the Government Printing Office is the only official version.

PART CONGRESSIONAL RECORD (HOUSE)
DATE February 23, 1995
PAGE PAGE H2168

TITLE


TIME: 2310 MORE ON IWO JIMA
TEXT The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Largent). Under the Speaker`s announced policy of January 4, 1995, the gentleman from California (Mr. Dornan) is recognized for 50 minutes.

Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, it is awfully difficult to capture in a few minutes the essence of the history of the United States through its United States Marine Corps on such a day as this 23d of February 1995. I consider this day a second birthday for me. Before my colleagues leave the floor, I will show them why. PAGE H2168 I will address it directly to you, Mr. Speaker, because I believe you are a role model for young people around this country as are the four gentlemen that spoke a little while ago, African Americans, all proud citizens, South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, discussing things from their hearts as they see it. And my second term colleague, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hoke) and the two other freshman Members, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Bryant) and the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Christensen), who spoke, also role models.

But the reason today is special for me and why I began on the 15th anniversary of Iwo Jima to begin to research it is on February 23, 1960, I was ferrying, as a National Guard pilot, my 6 years of active duty were behind me, an Air Force F-86 Sabrejet to be retired to the boneyard in Davis-Mothon in Arizona. So I had no water survival equipment. The plane flamed out over the San Fernando Valley. I took it out over the water to try and air-start, got it started and it flamed out again. And then I wanted to punch off these long-range refueling tanks that were to get me to Arizona.

When I punched them off, only one came off so I had a 200-gallon tank at 6 1/2 pounds each gallon. That was a 1300-pound anvil under one wing. I tried to get in Point Magu. And in those days, you were supposed to punch off your canopy. Now you keep it on for a helicopter to foam you in case of fire. I punched off the canopy. I had not flown in 73 days. The plane had not flown in 5 months. It was the hangar queen, last one off the field. PAGE H2168 I was available, because I was what was called a `Guard bum` going from job to job, dreaming about going to Congress, dreaming about doing lots of things in life and doing lots of different jobs with 4 kids and hopefully more to come.

And I saw that field. And as the dirt and dust came up off the floor of the aircraft when the canopy went off and a pop stickle went flying by. Both my eyes were closed from grit. I got one open and I could see the headline: `Pilot on Last Flight Dies with Last Jet out of San Francisco-Van Nuys.` So I turned out toward the water. I was going to punch out along the beach. I decided the plane would jerk from the ejection and of course go inland and hit an orphanage and kill children and nuns. So I turned it out to sea. I intended still to come down in the surf, and I landed 6 miles out in the ocean. No Mae West, no raft, no survival equipment, and began to instantly drown.

I did not get this helmet off. I had scratches on my face trying to unsnap a simple snap that comes off that easily tonight. But I could not get the helmet off. Got my gloves, jacket off. That was it. Could not get my boots off and began to roll under the water every time I tried to get my knotted laces off. And I had called on Guard emergency channel communication with no Navy or Air Force at Oxnard Air Force Base. And the helicopter was scrambled that had been assigned to duty that very morning for the first time in history, 1 hour before my ejection. It is still there today, 35 years later on the 23rd of February. And the helicopter came out, coldest day of the year, wind, high waves, whitecaps everywhere. And he saw this 2-inch white stripe on this red helmet, a whitecap that would not go away. And he told the one enlisted man in the back, keep your eye on it. Circling down, this little 2-man helicopter, and this ensign saw the whitecap disappear. That was me drowning.

PAGE H2168 I slipped below the water. And all of my colleagues here tonight are Christian gentleman and they will understand that I am not being corny. This is true.
I said goodbye to my wife and four kids. I prepared to meet God. I was so nervous and embarrassed that I was flippant, because I literally said in my mind, Jesus, here I come, ready or not, and slipped beneath the water. I remembered a story I had read on drowning on someone that had been plunked out of the bottom of a pool. I said, the water is warmer than I am. I am taking in gulps. It is painless, and I thought about my wife hanging up the laundry. Again, corny but true, that is just what she was doing because that is what she did that time in the morning in the backyard. I pictured her being alone with four kids, and I said, I cannot give up. I have to try one more time.
It seemed hopeless, but I kicked to the surface and I came up. Here was this Navy helicopter, and he dropped a harness. PAGE H2168 I was begging the guy, yelling, I could taste blood from scratching my throat to jump in. I put my arm in the harness, and he jerked me about 10 feet up in the air, and I fell back under the water down, 5, 6, 8 feet. I figured I was gone again.

I came up and I said, well, this is ridiculous. I grabbed the harness, pushed it away from me and told him to level off, waited a few moments. And then I put my two arms into it and he, never having rescued anybody, immediately took off for the base and went up to 1,500 feet, traffic pattern altitude. Of course, that is the World Trade Tower, the Empire State Building is only 1250. And I cannot even feel my muscles. I am in early hyperthermia holding it just against me like this.
I did not want to go under the water and come up and hang on the harness. PAGE H2168 Slowly he brings me up inside. And when this enlisted man grabbed my arm, I begged him not to touch me until he closed this little trap door in the belly of the helicopter. When we got back to the base, he said, corny but true, that I was being circled by two or three huge sharks. They had lost four men to sharks in a Navy boat the week before.
That is one of the reasons they put the helicopter on rescue duty. `I didn`t think we would beat the sharks to you.`
February 23 became my birthday. It was the 15th anniversary of Iwo Jima, and I went to the history book to see what happened on that day. It is interesting how God lets history be attracted to some days.

PAGE H2168 And this is the day the siege began at the Alamo. I like that. It was the day that Zachary Taylor, to be President someday, although very briefly, died in office at the beginning of his second year, defeated General Santa Ana at the battle of Buena Vista in Mexico. That was 11 years after Santa Ana had tortured and killed every survivor at the Alamo, including men who served in this Chamber like Davy Crockett.

And then I saw that it was the day that President-elect Lincoln snuck into town because he had secretly avoided an assassination plot that had been foiled in Baltimore by Pinkerton Guards. He was getting ready to be sworn in. It was March 5 in those days, right up till Roosevelt`s third term.

Then I saw that it was the date that the Japanese shelled the oil refineries in Santa Barbara, 1942, three years before Iwo Jima. And how my mother had panicked in Manhattan and called her sister and my uncle, the Tinman on the Wizard of Oz, because all L.A. was H 2169 under a big alert from the Japanese attacking us. How things changed in two years.


http://www.esquilax.com/flag/bizarre.html#14


Sempers,

Roger

[wrbones]

I can't imagine being as clear headed and thoughtful in all that I say! They deserve every dollar and benefit they give themselves!


( Oh, come on! Don't ya recognise sarcasm when ya hear it! )

[firstsgtmike]

Robert K. Dornan was a radical conservative talk show host in California before he was elected to the House of Representatives.

He was considered a kook by his colleagues and often times he was seen on CSPAN giving a speech to a completely empty House. (But it DID go on record.)

In my opinion, the only thing he did that made sense was his support for the POWs. I believe he wore one of the first POW bracelets. He was a heavy supporter of the bracelet program on his talk show, and may have been instrumental in starting it.

I used to catch his program and considered as entertaining as Roller Derby and old time professional wrestling (Before the WWF).

I often wondered if he took LSD.

Mike Farrell
Cagayan de Oro
Philippines