State of the Union: Wounded Ranger Draws Prolonged Applause

During his State of the Union address to Congress, President Obama relied upon a living symbol — a wounded warrior — to represent a national shift from 12 years of war to what he hopes will be a resurgent era of peacetime prosperity. Before he could finish speaking about Sgt. 1st Class Cory Remsburg, an Army Ranger who almost died in Afghanistan, the president was interrupted by prolonged bipartisan applause that thundered through the House chamber up to the balcony seat where the soldier sat with first lady Michelle Obama. Remsburg, who had met Obama in 2009, had to learn to walk and speak again and endure numerous surgeries after a roadside bomb nearly killed him. “Like the America he serves, Sergeant First Class Cory Remsburg never gives up, and he does not quit,” Obama said. “Men and women like Cory remind us that America has never come easy. Our freedom, our democracy, has never been easy. But for more than 200 years, we have put those things aside and placed our collective shoulder to the wheel of progress – to create and build and expand the possibilities of individual achievement.” Obama also stressed the importance of supporting Afghanistan after U.S. involvement in combat operations comes to an end, and to thwart terrorist threats from al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations elsewhere in the world. He called for the nation to “move off a permanent war footing,” and urged Congress to speed the process that will lead to the closure of the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba. Obama also stressed the need for continued effort to ease the byzantine process veterans must go through to reap the benefits they earned for their service. Government and business should join together to help veterans find jobs as well, Obama said. In the Republican response, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., delivered a message that free markets – not the government – would provide the impetus for the better America that all citizens envision. “The president talks of income equality. But the real gap we face today is one of opportunity equality. And with this administration’s policies, that gap has become far too wide,” said McMorris Rodgers. Her husband, Craig, is a retired Navy commander.