>OF DUTY, HONOR AND SERVICE

(Senate - November 18, 2005)

    Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, in the spring of this year, I had the remarkable experience of hosting a recording of a history for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. A distinguished, elderly Idahoan recounted his experiences as a supply officer during World War II, notably in one of the units that liberated the Nazi concentration camp, Dachau.

   Ralph Leseburg is 86 years old and lives in St. Anthony, ID with his beloved wife of 66 years, Wanda. Before visiting my office, he returned to Dachau, Germany on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the camp's liberation by the Americans. After taking part in the commemoration ceremony, he stopped in Washington, DC to visit the World War II Memorial and pay respects to his fallen comrades.

   Ralph was drafted in 1944 when he was a young married man with three children living in Layton, UT. That young man was evident in the wizened gentleman who sat in my office some months ago, his experiences of those difficult times surprisingly vivid in his blue eyes. He spent time in France and then in Germany assigned to the 42nd Quartermaster Company of the Army. He remembers the bombings that cleared Wersberg, Germany, and bringing in supplies of food, clothing and ammunition for the soldiers.

   Clearly, his most difficult time was to come, for it was just months later on April 29, 1945, around 6 or 7 p.m. in the evening that his company followed the troops into the liberated camps with two truckloads of food for the survivors. Up to this point in the interview, Ralph had shared his experiences in great detail, telling of dates, places and times with remarkable acuity. When asked about what he saw that night, Ralph paused for a long minute and said, ``Well, it's just something you don't like to talk about.'' At that moment, he was thousands of miles and many years away from my office in the Dirksen Building. His blue eyes, glinting with the shine of old tears, reflected the stark horror of that day, the memory too overwhelming to put to words.

���   Ralph continued to serve until 1946, when he returned to his wife and children and civilian life. Looking back, he said that he remembered paying attention to the lifestyle of the people in the countries where he served, and remarked that ``We are blessed to be in this nation, a nation of human rights and humanitarian service.'' When asked about serving his country, Ralph said only this: ``It wasn't easy to leave my wife and children, but I served my country when I was called, and I knew why I was called.'' I would like to offer my sincere thanks and gratitude for Ralph and his family for their sacrifice and service so many years ago. It was a tremendous honor for me to have this particular member of ``the greatest generation'' in my office that day.