Commissioner John Dunn's message
after presentation with C of C award
By John Dunn
Gwinnett County Commissioner
Special to GwinnettForum.com

(Editor's note: Here are Gwinnett County Commissioner John Dunn's remarks, after presentation of a plaque honoring him for service in the Coast Guard, given at a recent meeting of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce.)

DEC. 27, 2001 -- Thank you Mr. Chairman, and thanks to the Chamber for honoring me this evening. I must admit, I had some trepidation at being honored for an act that I consider to be merely showing up for work.

I believe that there was not a person in this hall who on September 11th, did not only want our nation to avenge the deaths of thousands, but wanted to do the avenging.

On September 12th, I had the good fortune to be able to respond to the atrocities that we all had witnessed on television. I joined my unit in an odyssey, which would ultimately land us in Boston, Massachusetts.

By honoring me tonight you honor the 100+ men and women of Port Security Unit 307, a unit which in its two years of existence has been in the front lines of this war on terrorism. When the events of 9-11 unfolded, many of our members had just returned from the Persian Gulf, where they had been conducting port security operations in the wake of the USS Cole attack.

You honor the 2,000 Coast Guard Reservists called up on September 12th, the largest reserve call-up of America's smallest military service since World War II.

By honoring me tonight, you honor two of my fallen Coast Guard Reserve brothers:

* MK1 Jeffrey A. Pallazo, 33, of Staten Island, NY. Pallazo was a FDNY member killed while working the World Trade Center disaster. He drilled at Coast Guard Station New York.

* PS2 Vincent Gabriel Danz, 38, of Farmingdale, NY. Danz was a member of the NYPD, also killed while working the World Trade Center disaster. He drilled at Coast Guard Activities New York.

Now, let me honor a few people:

* Johnny Spann, the CIA agent and former Marine who died at the hands of Taliban thugs during operations in Afghanistan. Spann died for his country, in a manner consistent with those agents who passed before him…agents like.....

* Curtis Wood, father of my wife Angela, who was killed during the 1980s serving his country. The CIA is the stuff of Hollywood fiction, but the reality is that its agents often fight and die in private, with little or no official recognition, their families unaware of the circumstances of their deaths. These are people with the attitude that Johnny Spann had: that they were there to do the things that most Americans did not want to do.

I would like to mention my daughter, Tiffany. During one of my nightly telephone calls home while on duty in Boston, she expressed her sadness that I was not home. "Why couldn't someone else go?" she asked.

As it turned out, her JROTC instructor was also on standby to leave. I told her, "Sweetie, it is not John Rambo or John Claude Van Damme or Arnold Schwartzenegger who have to fight the forces of evil. It is usually average Joes like me or your instructor who have to stand up and get the bad guys.

Now, let me call upon you. Those mentioned above stood up when it was time to serve their country. We are now in a recession, helped along in no small part by the events of 9-11.

Make no mistake: this was an attack on the American economy. The World Trade Center was a symbol of our economy and its global reach. I call upon you to continue to do the things necessary to help us extricate ourselves from this recession.

Sell something.

Build something.

Spend money.

Hire people. On September 19, General Motors announced its "Keep America Rolling" campaign, ushering in the legendary 0.0% financing program. Not only did GM spearhead an automotive industry drive to stimulate a sagging economy, but it also got buyers back into the showroom when America was still in shock from the 9-11 attacks. And GM made money.

Now it is your turn. If you haven't already started addressing this recession, do it now. I know that you, the members of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, are up to the task because "Success Lives Here" and because "Gwinnett is Great."

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