[ applause ] since the days of the Revolution Congress has awarded gold medals to express the peoples appreciation for duh sting wished. The force was activated in 1842 as an elite unit of 1,800 american and canadian commandoes. Just how elite . For every man they lost, they killed 25. For every man they cap which tu they took 285. The enemy dubbed them the devils and so effective today that our special forces refer to them as pioneers. Let me thank you for being here. Of course, in addition to many family members, we are truly humbled to have with us some 42 veterans of the force. Please join me now in welcoming these great men to our hall. Ladies and gentlemen, please stand for the presentation of the colors by the United States army color guard, the singing of the canadian and United States National Anthems and the retiring of the colors. Color halt. Present arms. Oh, say can you see by the dawns early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilights last gleaming whose broad stripe
Today. Since the days of the revolution, congress has awarded gold medals to express the peoples appreciation for distinguished achievements. The first recipient was general George Washington himself in march of 1776. Today, pursuant to House Resolution 324 we will present a gold medal in honor of the First Special Service Force. The force was activated in 1942 as an elite unit of 1,800 american and canadian commandos. Just how elite . Well, for every man they lost they killed 25. For every man they captured, they took 235. The force was so fearless that the enemy dubbed them, the devils. And so effective today that our special forces refer to them as pioneers. These men represent the finest of the finest. So today we bestow on them our highest honor. So let me thank all of you for being here, especially ambassador door, secretary mccue and all of our army leaders. Of course in addition to many family members were truly humbled to have with us some 42 veterans of the force. Please join
Owitz talked about how they were designed and awarded. Welcome toernoon, our friends from the cspan audience. What that means for our audience, during the questionandanswer period, please wait for your question until the microphone gets the read so everyone can hear. David callan, im president of the museum of american finance. I am joined by the chair, john herzog. 220 is a bond from about years ago, signed by none other than the father of our country, George Washington. This is George Washingtons bond. About 60 years ago, this document is a share certificate in rko owned by howard hughes, signed right. Here. What thosent today, two men have in common and the answer. Is that both received the congressional gold manner. Edal. Today we will hear from joel iskowitz, who has designed them. Including one design for the apollo 11 mission, the original moon landing mission. Joel has a voluminous volume of work. You have seen it coins, journals, stamps. He has designed over 2000 stamps for 40
And restorers and artists and whoptors and archivists took it upon themselves, they were in very comfortable lifestyles and had no need to be impressed into service. But in order to save these great Cultural Treasures of the world, they put life and limit risk limb at risk to save great treasures for posterity. I apologize. This was originally going to be the final piece of my running narrative, but we had just returned from this very moving ceremony, but it has been filling my mind and my heart right now. Presentationslide sounds very formal, but in atlity, when i took a look the seven or so congressional gold medals that i intend to speak to you about this afternoon, i realized that each complexy story was so contentsuch elaborate and connection to so much history that it was be literally impossible in the small amount of time we have this afternoon, allowing for some questions and answers at the end, to get into too much detail about everyone. With that, my disclaimer is that i will
Christian mentioned it would be covered by cspan, i got into an cripple panic. There is a tremendous sense of privilege one has when one is tasked with Something Like designing a congressional gold medal. A congressional gold medal is our nations form of highest esteem for distinguished individuals and also institutions and he goes back to nation. Ding of our so it is a very daunting process to take on such a role. It is a lot of hard work. But it also is incredibly gratifying especially when one gets a chance as i have and my lovely wife suzanne had yesterday to witness the recipients of the congressional gold medal and the ceremony which occurred yesterday for the monument. Is spinningy heart with the events of yesterday because that particular congressional gold medal combines so many stories. It combines the stories of world war ii. It combines the horror and the terror that hitler and his minions had visited upon europe and literally the world. It also involves heroic efforts that