Senator Bob Corker on Friday released a video honoring the five service members who lost their lives during the terror attack in Chattanooga on July 16, 2015, and reflecting on the community’s response. Senator Corker served as mayor of Chattanooga from 2001 to 2005.
A full transcript of the video follows.
“I was in a [Senate Banking Committee] hearing and my wife, Elizabeth, was in Chattanooga, and she was driving down Amnicola Highway and called our office to let us know that something really terrible had happened.
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“I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like leaving the funeral and driving to the burial place and seeing so many Chattanoogans, of all walks of life, standing out there.
Kids left baseball fields to be out there standing with their hat over their heart. Women who had been out just exercising and on a walk. Companies had come out of their places of business. It was an amazing thing.
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“Peyton Manning is a good friend of mine, and so we immediately had a conversation about it and began talking about a way to make sure that these families were taken care of for a long, long time.
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“We are blessed to be a blessing, and Genesis 12 lays that out. I think that it’s just something, especially in our great nation, for our citizenry to take to heart, and I think many do. I do think that the response in Chattanooga to what happened – so many people demonstrated that very verse, Genesis 12.