Honoring and congratulating the Minnesota National Guard, on its 150th anniversary, for its spirit of dedication and service to the State of Minnesota and the Nation and recognizing that the role of the National Guard, the Nation's citizen-soldier based militia, which was formed before the United States Army, has been and still is extremely important to the security and freedom of the Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 371) honoring and congratulating the Minnesota National Guard, on its 150th anniversary, for its spirit of dedication and service to the State of Minnesota and the Nation and recognizing that the role of the National Guard, the Nation's citizen- soldier based militia, which was formed before the United States Army, has been and still is extremely important to the security and freedom of the Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on the resolution under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Con. Res. 371 honoring and congratulating the Minnesota National Guard on its 150th anniversary. Since Minnesota's early days as a frontier territory, Minnesotans have stepped forward to protect and defend their fellow citizens.

Tracing their origins back to the Territorial Pioneer Guard, today's National Guardsmen continue to proudly serve their State and Nation in times of crisis and need. It is this dual service that makes the National Guard unique among our Nation's military services. Whether it is reinforcing levees along the Red River that borders Minnesota and North Dakota, patrolling the skies above New York City, or escorting supply convoys in Iraq, members of Minnesota's National Guard have answered the call of State and national leaders, as they have done for 150 years.

In recent years, unprecedented natural disasters have highlighted the Minnesota National Guard's traditional State role. In April 1997, heavy winter snowfall and unseasonably warm spring temperatures combined to cause massive flooding of the Red River which forced the evacuation of 50,000 citizens from Grand Forks, North Dakota. As we stand here today, Minnesota's National Guard is again moving to the Red River.

National Guardsmen and residents of both States struggled valiantly to keep the rising water at bay. Despite their best efforts that year, the river could not be contained. Floodwaters quickly breached the levee near Breckenridge, Minnesota, forcing its 4,000 residents to flee. In the midst of heavy rain, snow and 60-mile-an-hour winds, Minnesota National Guardsmen seamlessly switched from their engineering mission to rescue and evacuation operations. Residents of western Minnesota remember the destruction wrought by the floodwaters, later described as a once-in-500-years event; but they also recalled that Minnesota's citizen soldiers were there to assist them throughout the disaster.

In 2005, members of the Minnesota Guard were again called to the scene of a major natural disaster, and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina soon developed into our Nation's largest evacuation and recovery operation.

Quickly overwhelmed by the devastating effects of the hurricane, the State governments of Mississippi and Louisiana urgently requested assistance, and Minnesota National Guard in conjunction with units from other States responded. C-130s from the St. Paul-based 133rd Airlift Wing hauled more than 600 passengers and 370 tons of cargo to the stricken States while Minnesota Army National Guard aviators transported over 400,000 pounds of sand bags to help reinforce the failing levees.

Since the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the Minnesota National Guard has also answered the calls of our national leadership to perform vital Federal missions.

Following the attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., F-16s from the Duluth-based 148th Fighter Wing provided combat air patrols over the two cities and deployed personnel and aircraft to an alert facility at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida.

In the years since 9/11, Minnesota's Army National Guard has assumed key stabilization missions throughout the world.

Though the treaty that ended years of conflict in the Balkans bears the name of an Ohio city, soldiers from the Minnesota National Guard played a large role in implementing that peace. In 2003, over 1,000 soldiers from Minnesota took over peacekeeping operations in Bosnia, performing such vital missions as collecting weapons and identifying mine fields to protect the civilian population.

The Balkan peacekeeping mission was expanded in 2004 when 1,000 members of the 34th Infantry Division, the famed ``Red Bulls,'' deployed to neighboring Kosovo. I was privileged to witness the great work performed by Major General Erlandson and his Minnesota Guardsmen who served on the KFOR mission in Kosovo.

The camaraderie and experience gained in Bosnia and Kosovo has lived on as those two previous deployments volunteered to accompany and assist their fellow Guardsmen as the 1st Brigade Combat Team from the 34th Infantry Division moves out for duty in Iraq. Having just completed 6 months of training in Mississippi, the first BCT has now moved into theater to assume responsibility for stability operations in Iraq.

As the 2,600 Minnesotans travel into harm's way, we must commend and remember the three members of the Minnesota National Guard who preceded them and made the ultimate sacrifice last year in defense of our freedom, 1st Lieutenant Jason Timmerman, Staff Sergeant David Day, and Sergeant Jesse Lhotka.

As we honor the Minnesota National Guard today for 150 years of service, we would do well to heed the words taken from a speech Lieutenant Timmerman wrote for the Lake Benton High School Veterans Day Ceremony in 2003: ``Show respect to those who have served. Most important of all, show your gratitude by enjoying the freedoms and rights that so many service members have fought and died for. Don't let their deaths be in vein. Exercise your right to vote, your right to free speech, and be happy for your freedom to do as you wish.''

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I now take a great deal of pleasure in yielding 5 minutes to the author of this bill, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Kennedy).

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman for her kind words. And now I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Ramstad).

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his kind remarks.

I would like now to yield 4 minutes to a real historian of this famous Minnesota National Guard, my colleague from the First District of Minnesota, Mr. Gutknecht.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume just to take a few seconds to extend my thanks to the gentleman from North Carolina and my colleagues from Minnesota for their support today of the Minnesota National Guard and their very kind remarks. I would urge all of my colleagues to support H. Con. Res. 371 and say happy birthday to the Minnesota National Guard.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Kline), my good friend and my colleagues.

I am pleased to stand here and rise to speak in support of this resolution that we have offered to honor and congratulate the Minnesota National Guard on their 150th anniversary.

On April 17, 2006, the Minnesota National Guard will celebrate 150 years of history, a history that extends from the battlefields of the Civil War to the war on terror in the desert sands of Iraq.

When President Lincoln sent out his calls for troops in the early days of the Civil War, among the first militia units to respond were from Minnesota. These men, who were from the 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment, saw battle at Bull Run, Antietam and Gettysburg.

At a pivotal moment in the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg in the fight to preserve our national union, the 1st Minnesota answered the call, even though it resulted in the suffering of the highest casualties of any unit in that war. In a real sense, they may have saved the Union.

On July 3, 1963, as my colleague, Gil Gutknecht, so eloquently will speak of, 262 men of the 1st Minnesota Infantry closed the gap in the Union line, stopped the desperate Confederate attack at the center of the line on Cemetery Ridge. Only 47 of them answered the roll call the next day.

Had these men not acted with courage and boldness to turn back the charge and buy the rest of the U.S. Army precious time to reinforce, Confederate forces may have been able to breach Union lines. What began as the beginning of the end of the war would have turned out differently on that day.

Mr. Speaker, I have had the privilege to go to Iraq three times to meet our soldiers and the commanders on the ground. I prefer to talk to the people who are there to learn what is going on, not to see the latest sensationalist 30-second story of gloom and doom and defeat.

On one of these trips, I met with members of the Minnesota Guard serving with the 1st Cavalry Division. I asked them, what is your best and your worst experience here in Iraq? One of them said to me that his best experience was listening to the Iraqis complain to him. I said, you should be in Congress.

He told me that you knew that they knew that the Iraqis would never have dreamed of complaining to one of Saddam's soldiers. But even though he stood there with a rifle over his shoulder, clearly having power over them, they felt comfortable complaining to him, confirming that he and his colleagues had given them a gift of incomparable value, the gift of freedom, the gift of freedom of speech, the gift of protest.

That is what 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard now staging in Kuwait as part of the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 34th Red Bull Division, the highest rated brigade in the whole Guard, are bringing to the Middle East. That is why my nephew interrupted his college studies to recently serve a tour of duty with the Minnesota Guard.

At the same time, while they are bringing safety and security to America by battling terrorists abroad, the Guard is also helping to bring relief to families in need at home. As we speak here today, members of the Minnesota National Guard are responding to destructive flooding in northwestern Minnesota where their experience, professionalism and planning are saving property and lives.

These selfless deeds, at home and abroad, show the sacrifice and heartfelt dedication of every member of the Minnesota National Guard.

That is why, Mr. Speaker, it is appropriate that my colleagues and I rise to honor and congratulate the Minnesota National Guard for 150 years of service to their State and country.

I have absolute confidence that future generations of Americans will continue to witness firsthand the great deeds of the Minnesota National Guard, and will continue to have cause to say thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I am very pleased to be here and join my colleagues from Minnesota. I want to thank my colleague from North Carolina for his kind remarks as well.

Like the mighty Mississippi River, the tradition and pride of the Minnesota National Guard is long and deep. For 150 years Minnesotans have proudly taken their places in that long line of citizen soldiers, that long line that has never failed us.

Much has been said already today and I will try not to be redundant, but I do want to share some of the history of this very historical Guard. As has been mentioned, they were organized before Minnesota even became a State. Now, 150 years is a long time and many things have changed in our State, in our Nation, in our world. But there has been one constant, and that is the professionalism and the sense of service that we take for granted from our own National Guard.

As was mentioned, in April of 1861, it just so happened that the Governor of

the State of Minnesota, Governor Ramsey, was here in Washington, D.C. on other business when we heard of the firing on Fort Sumter. And President Lincoln put out a call for troops, and Governor Ramsey became the first Governor in the Union to rush over to the White House and volunteer troops to serve to defend the Union. And it then fell upon the Minnesota 1st Infantry to be the first regiments volunteered to serve in that battle for the Union. And the story has been told that when they marched off to war, they were 1,066 strong, but by the end of the day of fighting of July 2, 1863, only 47 could answer the call. They suffered on the late afternoon of July 2, 1863, the highest percentage of casualties of any unit that fought in that tragic war. But they held the line that day. And to this day many people believe that they deserve to be called the saviours of our country because of their sacrifices.

Many years later the colonel who led that regiment, Colonel William Colville, was asked what he thought about as they charged down that hill that day, and he said, ``Gad, I thought of Washington.'' They knew what the stakes were, and they knew that they had to hold that line.

Earlier in the day that pivotal battle was fought, General Hancock rolled by and he asked Colonel Colville, ``How long can you hold your position?''

And he responded with a sentence which made military and political history and survives to this day as the motto of the 1st Infantry. He said, ``General, to the last man.'' And as we know, it became no idle boast.

Since the Civil War, the Minnesota National Guard has honorably served in the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Operation Desert Shield, Desert Storm. These soldiers helped defend the border against Pancho Villa and maintain the peace in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo.

Today more than 600 National Guardsmen from Minnesota have been deployed to Afghanistan in Operation Enduring Freedom. More than 2,600 Minnesota citizen soldiers are serving in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In January I saw firsthand the courage and dedication of the Minnesota National Guard at Camp Shelby. Awaiting their deployment to Iraq, these volunteer men and women maintain the historic spirit and tradition of the Minnesota National Guard.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly rise in support of this resolution, and I congratulate and recognize the Minnesota National Guard's 150 years of dedicated service. Because of their sacrifices, our Nation and our State are more secure and millions around the world can look forward to a future of peace and freedom.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise as well today to congratulate the Minnesota National Guard for their 150th anniversary, which I believe is officially on April 17. And it is with great pride that I do this because, as people have said, we have great shoulders in the Minnesota National Guard.

As has been mentioned by other speakers, they have a rich history, 2 years older than the State of Minnesota. They have participated in every military action that we have been involved in in this country. And as was mentioned today, we have over 2,600 soldiers that have recently been deployed, some of them yesterday, I believe, to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Many of those soldiers are from my district. Soldiers, too, of the 136th Infantry, called the Bearcats, they were also deployed in Bosnia. I had an opportunity to visit them there. I was as well in Camp Shelby a couple times to visit those folks. And typical of the Minnesota tradition, the Bearcats racked up the highest scores in the training that was done in Mississippi, higher than a lot of our regular Army forces. So we are very proud of them, and they believe in their mission. They are ready to go, and I am sure they are going to uphold the fine tradition of the Minnesota National Guard.

I would also like to recognize and thank their families, their loved ones, and their communities and their employers because those are the folks that probably have got the toughest job in this whole situation, especially with these people that have been deployed two or three times in the last 5 years, which a lot of these soldiers have. So we want to recognize them as well.

I also would like to recognize and thank the Guard and the members that are currently deployed to my communities in the Seventh District of Minnesota along the Red River in the north. We are again having another flood event up there that we seem to have every once in a while. We had a very serious one in 1997, where events very similar to what happened in New Orleans happened in the Red River Valley. The Guard did an outstanding job during that particular event. And today we have 136 Guardsmen that have been deployed up to the Red River Valley, and they are helping us get through this event again today.

I also want to applaud the State of Minnesota, which has undertaken a conscientious policy of providing pay differential to State employees that serve in the National Guard.

Of the approximately 12,000 Guard members in the State, about 500 of them work for the State of Minnesota, and their lives and the lives of their families, during this difficult time of activation, have been made easier by Minnesota's pay differential policy.

Mr. Speaker, I am also a cosponsor and strong supporter of legislation that would allow the Federal Government to follow Minnesota and provide pay differential for Federal employees activated in the Guard and Reserve. I hope that this body will pass this legislation soon, because it has worked well in Minnesota, and I know it will work well for the rest of the country.

So, once again, I rise to congratulate the men and women of the Minnesota National Guard on their 150th anniversary, and thank all of them for their service to the State of Minnesota and their service to the country. I know that they will make us proud, as they always have.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I join my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, in congratulating our Minnesota National Guard on its 150th anniversary. As my colleagues from Minnesota and our floor manager on the Democratic side have mentioned, this Minnesota National Guard has had a great and distinguished career of service to the Nation.

There is no greater public service than that of military duty. There is no longer a tradition than that of the citizen soldier. It goes back to the very beginnings and foundation of our Nation and of our fight in the Revolutionary War for independence.

Our National Guardsmen served in the Civil War, Gettysburg. They served in the Spanish-American War and World War I, World War II, at Wood Lake, Philippines, Meuse-Argonne in France, and Bataan, North Africa, Sicily, in Korea, in Vietnam, in Kuwait, in Iraq. They have served in Bosnia and Kosovo. And after September 11 it was our Minnesota Air National Guard that flew cover for months over our Nation's capital. Our Guard unit from my district, from Duluth, put in endless and wearying hours. We could hear those aircraft in the wee hours of the morning, protecting us against the foe unknown or terrorist attack that we could not imagine, and they did it without complaint but with enormous professionalism.

This coming Saturday Cloquet E Battery, the 216th Air Defense Artillery Unit, will return safely from their duty in Saudi Arabia and in Iraq.

Over 11,000 of our Minnesota Guardsmen have served some two and three tours of duty in the gulf. We salute them, congratulate them for their extraordinary service.

I have been, as many of my colleagues have already attested in their own experience, to both send-off and return ceremonies. The most impressive is the open arms, the love with which our citizen soldiers are received on their return, the grateful hearts, the admiration of friends and family for the service that they have performed so selflessly, the tears that are shed, the joy of relief at coming home, but also the anxiety about returning to their job, their place of employment.

After two or three displacements, some have had concerns. Fortunately, employers in most cases have been responsive to their duty to our National Guard, and as they return home and continue their citizen soldier service to America, as we provide for those in the field the necessary body armor, equipment, support services to carry out their duties in the field, we must provide for them as they eventually become veterans and assure that they are treated with the respect of our World War II vets, our Korea vets. And we have learned a great deal from the Vietnam veterans. They too have taught us great lessons, and those lessons must not be lost upon this body nor upon the American public as we welcome home the Iraqi veterans and incorporate them again into society and accord them the support services that they will need and that they deserve and have truly earned.

I join my colleagues in the delegation in saluting our Minnesota National Guard on its 150th anniversary, and I join my colleague, Ms. McCollum, in congratulating our colleague, the gentleman from Minnesota, manager of the bill on the floor, for his service to our country in the Marine Corps.