Floor SpeechCeremonial2026-09-08

IN MEMORY OF LIEUTENANT COLONEL BERRY HENRY HENDERSON, JR., UNITED STATES ARMY (RETIRED)

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On 2026-09-08, Representative Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (D-GA-2) delivered a floor speech titled "IN MEMORY OF LIEUTENANT COLONEL BERRY HENRY HENDERSON, JR., UNITED STATES ARMY (RETIRED)" in the House.

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IN MEMORY OF LIEUTENANT COLONEL BERRY HENRY HENDERSON, JR., UNITED STATES ARMY (RETIRED)

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 142 (Tuesday, September 8, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 142 (Tuesday, September 8, 2026)] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page E886] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] IN MEMORY OF LIEUTENANT COLONEL BERRY HENRY HENDERSON, JR., UNITED STATES ARMY (RETIRED) ______ HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR. of georgia in the house of representatives Tuesday, September 8, 2026 Mr. BISHOP. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Lieutenant Colonel Berry Henry Henderson, Jr., United States Army, Retired, of Columbus, Georgia, who passed peacefully on September 4, 2026, at the age of ninety-three--twenty-three days short of his ninety-fourth birthday. Berry Henderson was born on September 27, 1932, in Athens, Georgia, and he came of age in a country that would ask a great deal of the young men of his generation. He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration from North Georgia College in 1953, and he answered that call by putting on the uniform of the United States Army--a uniform he would wear for the next twenty-two years. He became an aviator. Over the course of his career he logged more than three thousand hours in the air as both an airplane and a helicopter pilot. And in 1965--the year this Nation began pouring its sons into Southeast Asia--Captain Henderson found himself in Vietnam, commanding a Chinook company. Mr. Speaker, I want my colleagues to sit with what that means. The Chinook crews of 1965 flew into places nothing else could reach. They carried ammunition and artillery forward into positions that were already under fire, and they came back out carrying wounded men who had run out of every other option. Those pilots did not get to choose their weather, and they did not get to choose their landing zones. They went where they were told, and they went because somebody on the ground was waiting. There are men alive in this country today--grandfathers now, great- grandfathers--who never learned Berry Henderson's name and never will. But they came home. Some of them came home because of the company he led and the standard he held them to. That is a debt that does not appear on any ledger, and it is the kind of debt this Nation has never found a way to repay. He later served as an instructor for the Command and General Staff Officer Course, teaching the officers who would lead the Army after him. He retired in 1975 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Mr. Speaker, he did something I find quietly beautiful. A man who had spent twenty-two years flying human beings through fire spent the rest of his life helping families find a place to come home to. In 1977 he joined three partners in organizing Showcase Realty. He became a real estate instructor. He served as president of his local board. He was named dean of the Georgia Real Estate Institute, and he rose to serve as president of the Georgia Association of REALTORS. He had carried men out of danger; now he handed families the keys to their front doors. In every organization he ever joined, he rose--not because he sought the title, but because people watching him decided he ought to have it. He was also, by every account, a man who knew how to enjoy the life he had fought to protect. He and his beloved Marcella traveled the world together. He loved Cadillacs, and he loved horses--a helicopter pilot with a weakness for horsepower of every kind. Fifty-two years he had with her. When she went on ahead of him, he carried her with him for the rest of the way. Mr. Speaker, there is one more thing I would ask this body to consider. Berry Henderson's son, B.H. ``Skip'' Henderson III, serves today as the 70th Mayor of the City of Columbus, Georgia. And in the biography that introduces the Mayor to the citizens he serves--the official page, the one on the city's own letterhead--there is a sentence that says simply that the Mayor is the son of Army veteran Berry Henderson. A grown man, the chief executive of one of Georgia's great cities, and when he tells his city who he is, he begins with his daddy. That is not a line a public relations office writes. That is a son telling the truth about where he came from. Lieutenant Colonel Henderson is survived by his son, Skip, and his wife Karon; his daughter, Susan Henderson; his granddaughter, Kyle Henderson, and Mike Karam; his grandson, Joe Henderson, and McKenna; his great-grandson, Burke Karam, his niece, Kathleen Hughes; and several great nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his wife of more than fifty-two years, Marcella; his parents, Berry and Jo Henderson; and his sister, Mary Ann Henderson. After more than three thousand hours in the air, he has flown his last mission. He is cleared to land. And Marcella has been waiting a long time at the end of that runway. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the House of Representatives to join my wife, Vivian, and me, along with the more than 765,000 people of Georgia's Second Congressional District in honoring the life of Lieutenant Colonel Berry Henry Henderson, Jr., and in extending our deepest sympathy to Mayor Henderson and to the entire Henderson family. ____________________

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IN MEMORY OF LIEUTENANT COLONEL BERRY HENRY HENDERSON, JR., UNITED STATES ARMY (RETIRED) Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 142 (Tuesday, September 8, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 142 (Tuesday, September 8, 2026)] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page E886] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] IN MEMORY OF LIEUTENANT COLONEL BERRY HENRY HENDERSON, JR., UNITED STATES ARMY (RETIRED) ______ HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR. of georgia in the house of representatives Tuesday, September 8, 2026 Mr. BISHOP. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Lieutenant Colonel Berry Henry Henderson, Jr., United States Army, Retired, of Columbus, Georgia, who passed peacefully on September 4, 2026, at the age of ninety-three--twenty-three days short of his ninety-fourth birthday. Berry Henderson was born on September 27, 1932, in Athens, Georgia, and he came of age in a country that would ask a great deal of the young men of his generation. He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration from North Georgia College in 1953, and he answered that call by putting on the uniform of the United States Army--a uniform he would wear for the next twenty-two years. He became an aviator. Over the course of his career he logged more than three thousand hours in the air as both an airplane and a helicopter pilot. And in 1965--the year this Nation began pouring its sons into Southeast Asia--Captain Henderson found himself in Vietnam, commanding a Chinook company. Mr. Speaker, I want my colleagues to sit with what that means. The Chinook crews of 1965 flew into places nothing else could reach. They carried ammunition and artillery forward into positions that were already under fire, and they came back out carrying wounded men who had run out of every other option. Those pilots did not get to choose their weather, and they did not get to choose their landing zones. They went where they were told, and they went because somebody on the ground was waiting. There are men alive in this country today--grandfathers now, great- grandfathers--who never learned Berry Henderson's name and never will. But they came home. Some of them came home because of the company he led and the standard he held them to. That is a debt that does not appear on any ledger, and it is the kind of debt this Nation has never found a way to repay. He later served as an instructor for the Command and General Staff Officer Course, teaching the officers who would lead the Army after him. He retired in 1975 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Mr. Speaker, he did something I find quietly beautiful. A man who had spent twenty-two years flying human beings through fire spent the rest of his life helping families find a place to come home to. In 1977 he joined three partners in organizing Showcase Realty. He became a real estate instructor. He served as president of his local board. He was named dean of the Georgia Real Estate Institute, and he rose to serve as president of the Georgia Association of REALTORS. He had carried men out of danger; now he handed families the keys to their front doors. In every organization he ever joined, he rose--not because he sought the title, but because people watching him decided he ought to have it. He was also, by every account, a man who knew how to enjoy the life he had fought to protect. He and his beloved Marcella traveled the world together. He loved Cadillacs, and he loved horses--a helicopter pilot with a weakness for horsepower of every kind. Fifty-two years he had with her. When she went on ahead of him, he carried her with him for the rest of the way. Mr. Speaker, there is one more thing I would ask this body to consider. Berry Henderson's son, B.H. ``Skip'' Henderson III, serves today as the 70th Mayor of the City of Columbus, Georgia. And in the biography that introduces the Mayor to the citizens he serves--the official page, the one on the city's own letterhead--there is a sentence that says simply that the Mayor is the son of Army veteran Berry Henderson. A grown man, the chief executive of one of Georgia's great cities, and when he tells his city who he is, he begins with his daddy. That is not a line a public relations office writes. That is a son telling the truth about where he came from. Lieutenant Colonel Henderson is survived by his son, Skip, and his wife Karon; his daughter, Susan Henderson; his granddaughter, Kyle Henderson, and Mike Karam; his grandson, Joe Henderson, and McKenna; his great-grandson, Burke Karam, his niece, Kathleen Hughes; and several great nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his wife of more than fifty-two years, Marcella; his parents, Berry and Jo Henderson; and his sister, Mary Ann Henderson. After more than three thousand hours in the air, he has flown his last mission. He is cleared to land. And Marcella has been waiting a long time at the end of that runway. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the House of Representatives to join my wife, Vivian, and me, along with the more than 765,000 people of Georgia's Second Congressional District in honoring the life of Lieutenant Colonel Berry Henry Henderson, Jr., and in extending our deepest sympathy to Mayor Henderson and to the entire Henderson family. ____________________