Remedy Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I am going to be on the floor with some of my colleagues in the next hour.

I thank my colleague from Iowa, Senator Ernst--Lieutenant Colonel Ernst, by the way, of the Iowa National Guard--for organizing the series of discussions we are going to have in the next couple of minutes on the Senate floor that will focus on Military Appreciation Month. I think we are all going to talk about how wonderful our military is, and we will probably do a little bit of bragging about our different States and how we support and appreciate our military so much.

I like to come down on the floor and talk in superlatives about my State, the great State of Alaska. It is true that most Senators love to talk about their States in all of their superlatives, which is good. We are proud States. We each think we live in the best State in the country. We all believe that. I happen to think my State is the best State in the country.

In talking about our military and its support and Military Appreciation Month, we certainly have a large military presence in Alaska. We have about 32 military facilities and 5 major installations. Roughly, 10 percent of the population is either in the military or is a family member of someone who is in the military.

I like to say that Alaska actually constitutes three pillars of our Nation's military might. Whether the attacks be from Kim Jong Un or the Iranians, we are the cornerstone of missile defense, which are the missiles and the radar that protect the entire country from attacks. This all resides in Alaska. We are the hub air combat power for the Asia-Pacific and the Arctic, and we will have over 100 fifth-generation fighters--F-22s, F-35s--by the end of next year. We are also a vital platform for some of America's best trained troops to be deployed anywhere around the world because of our strategic location. Alaska also boasts the largest number of veterans per capita of any State in the country. These are the facts, and they are all good.

What is so unique about Alaska--and, I would say, as in most States-- is how proud we are of our military and how much the communities of Alaska--big communities, small communities--support the men and women who serve in the military. It is almost a part of our DNA in Alaska. Let me just give you one example.

I was in a group of community leaders in Delta Junction, which is in Alaska's interior. It is actually near Fort Greely, where we have our missile defense fields. It is right on the outskirts of what is called the JPARC, which is the biggest air training range in the entire United States. The airspace is actually the size of Florida. There is great training, and we have Red Flag exercises. Our men and women in the Air Force, in particular, do some wonderful training there.

We were in this community meeting, and some Air Force pilot was flying low and fast. He probably broke the sound barrier because there was a giant sonic boom. It shook the whole building. It shook the whole meeting room. Now, I would say, in most States, that would probably result in having people complain and call their Congressmen and Senators in their being mad about what the military would be doing-- shaking the buildings with sonic booms because they would be breaking the speed of sound as they would be training. Yet the mayor of Delta just looked at me and said, ``The sound of freedom.'' There were no complaints, just support.

Let me give another example.

In so many of our smaller Native communities--Native villages--across Alaska, one sees what I refer to as special patriotism. Alaska Natives and the lower 48 American Indians serve in the military at higher rates than any ethnic group in the country. That is a special patriotism because--let's face it--these great American patriots weren't always supported by their government when they came home after fighting in World War II or in Vietnam.

As a matter of fact, there was a documentary that was produced about the community of Hoonah, AK, which is in Southeast Alaska. The film was called ``Hunting and Wartime.'' It was about the fact that almost every single male high school senior in the late 1960s in these small communities went off to fight in Vietnam--almost every one of them.

That is special patriotism. This support for the military isn't a recent phenomenon in Alaska. In 1942, during World War II, Alaskans oversubscribed their war bond quota by 300 percent, which surpassed that of every State in the Union.

So many Senators--Democratic and Republican--are going to come down to the floor and talk about our Military Appreciation Month, as they should. There is some talk in the country about the 1 percent and the less than 1 percent. Well, the 1 percent I really care about is the less than 1 percent of young men and women who still, today, raise their right hands to support and defend the Constitution and to defend our liberty, knowing it could even cost them their lives by their joining the U.S. military.

We all have wonderful veterans and wonderful men and women in the military whom we support in the U.S. Senate. I tell my constituents that the one thing we are focused on doing is making sure, when you send your son or daughter to join the military, that it is the top military in the world, the most ready military in the world, and the most capable military in the world.

One thing we are doing is reversing a dangerous trend. From 2010 to 2015, defense spending for the U.S. military was cut by almost 25 percent during the second term of the Obama administration--25 percent--and readiness plummeted. We are changing that because no man or woman in this country who volunteers to support and defend the Constitution by joining the military should be joining a military that is not at the highest level of readiness and lethal in terms of its getting the job done. So I am going to pass this on to some of my colleagues here. As the Senator from a State where communities support our military so much, I just want to thank all the members, regardless of where you live, for the great work you do and to let you know that the Senate supports you with all its heart and soul.

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