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1
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, First Lieutenant Garlin Murl Conner was a native
3 of Clinton County, Kentucky, who served with distinction and
4 valor in the United States Army during World War II; and
 
5     WHEREAS, Kentucky Congressman Ed Whitfield introduced H.R.
6 327 in the 108th Congress to authorize the President to award a
7 Medal of Honor posthumously to Lieutenant Garlin Murl Conner;
8 and
 
9     WHEREAS, Lieutenant Garlin Murl Conner is Kentucky's most
10 decorated war hero, who served on the front lines for over
11 eight hundred days in eight major campaigns; he was wounded
12 seven times but returned to combat and continued to fight on
13 the front lines after each wound; and
 
14     WHEREAS, During World War II, over forty 3rd Division
15 soldiers received Medals of Honor, more than any other
16 Division; however, Lieutenant Garlin Murl Conner was not
17 awarded the Medal of Honor due to an oversight and failure to
18 process the paperwork; and
 
19     WHEREAS, Lieutenant Conner served in the 3rd Infantry
20 Division with Audie L. Murphy, America's most decorated hero of
21 all wars; as compared to Audie L. Murphy, Lieutenant Conner was
22 awarded more Silver Stars for acts of valor, fought in more
23 campaigns, served on the front lines longer, and was wounded
24 more times; he was awarded many honors, including the
25 Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star with three Oak
26 Leaf Clusters, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart with six Oak
27 Leaf Clusters, and other medals; and
 
28     WHEREAS, On June 20, 1945, Lieutenant Conner was awarded
29 the Croix de Guerre, the French Medal of Honor, that was also
30 awarded to Sergeant Alvin C. York, America's most decorated

 

 

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1 World War I soldier, who was a friend of Lieutenant Conner and
2 lived a few miles from Lieutenant Conner's home on the
3 Kentucky-Tennessee border; and
 
4     WHEREAS, Major General Lloyd B. Ramsey (Ret.), who was
5 Lieutenant Conner's battalion commander during combat in World
6 War II, is still living and has signed the necessary documents
7 for awarding the Medal of Honor to Lieutenant Conner; in 1945,
8 Major General Ramsey wrote that Lieutenant Conner was "one of
9 the outstanding soldiers of this war, if not the
10 outstanding....I've never seen a man with as much courage and
11 ability as he has"; and
 
12     WHEREAS, Stephen Ambrose, America's foremost World War II
13 historian, founder of the D-Day Museum in New Orleans,
14 Louisiana, and author of many books, wrote on November 11,
15 2000, "I am in complete support of the effort to make
16 Lieutenant Garlin M. Conner a Medal of Honor recipient. What
17 Lieutenant Conner did in stopping the German assault near
18 Houssen, France in January 1945 was far above the call of duty.
19 I've met and talked at length with many Medal of Honor
20 recipients and am sure they would all agree that Lieutenant
21 Conner more than deserves the honor of joining them"; and
 
22     WHEREAS, On April 3, 2001, 3rd Infantry Division leaders
23 named the new EAGLE BASE in Bosnia-Herzegovina after Lieutenant
24 Conner because of his gallantry in World War II and because
25 "It's a company-grade forward operating base named after a
26 soldier with a company-grade rank"; and
 
27     WHEREAS, Richard Chilton, a former Green Beret from Genoa
28 City, Wisconsin, has been on a mission since 1996 to have the
29 Medal of Honor awarded to Lieutenant Conner; his research has
30 documented that Lieutenant Conner is one of the great combat
31 heroes of World War II, equal in every way to Audie L. Murphy;
32 Chilton has made presentations to dozens of schools about

 

 

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1 Lieutenant Conner's war record and has copies of over 2,500
2 letters written by students to President George W. Bush
3 requesting the Medal of Honor be awarded; after reviewing
4 Chilton's information, a host of former war veterans have
5 written Congress requesting passage of H.R. 327 to award the
6 Medal of Honor to one of America's greatest citizen soldiers,
7 Lieutenant Garlin Murl Conner; therefore, be it
 
8     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
9 NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE
10 SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that we urge the United States
11 Congress to enact legislation authorizing the President to
12 award a Medal of Honor posthumously to First Lieutenant Garlin
13 Murl Conner; and be it further
 
14     RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be delivered to:
15 the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee; the Clerk of the
16 House of Representatives of the United States; the Clerk of the
17 Senate of the United States; each member of the Illinois
18 Congressional Delegation; and the widow of First Lieutenant
19 Garlin Murl Conner, Mrs. Pauline W. Conner, Route 1, Box 208,
20 Albany, Kentucky 42602.