Full Text of HJR0010 94th General Assembly
HJ0010 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION
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| 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
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| 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
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| 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
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| 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
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| 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
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| 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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| 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
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| 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
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| 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
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| 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
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| 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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| 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
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| 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
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| 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.
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