1. Gillespie V "Sonny" Montgomery was an American soldier and politician from Mississippi who served in the Mississippi Senate and US House of Representatives from 1967 to 1997.
17 Facts About Sonny Montgomery
1. 2.
Sonny Montgomery was a retired major general of the Mississippi National Guard who served during World War II.
3.
Sonny Montgomery served with the 12th Armored Division in Europe during World War II.
4.
Sonny Montgomery served on active duty again during Korean War, this time as a member of the 31st Infantry Division.
5.
Sonny Montgomery was a member of the Mississippi Army National Guard until 1980, and retired as a major general.
6.
Sonny Montgomery represented part of Meridian in the Mississippi State Senate between 1956 and 1966.
7.
Sonny Montgomery was elected to Congress from what was then the 4th District in 1966.
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Sonny Montgomery was one of the more conservative Democrats in the House, and was known for being more "hawkish" than other members of his party.
9.
Sonny Montgomery was very popular in his district, usually winning reelection by some of the highest margins in the country.
10.
Sonny Montgomery ran unopposed from 1970 to 1974, in 1980, and from 1984 to 1990.
11.
Observers assumed that Sonny Montgomery would be succeeded by a Republican after he retired, given the crossover of conservative white voters from the Democratic Party to the GOP in the second half of the 20th century.
12.
Sonny Montgomery wanted to reverse the Department of Defense's declining recruitment efforts, which had dropped sharply in the 1980s, and improve the overall quality of the volunteers.
13.
Congressman Sonny Montgomery saw that educational shortfall as a direct threat to America's military readiness and national security.
14.
Sonny Montgomery asserted that "further studies were needed to prove a connection between various diseases and Agent Orange before the government should be held liable for disability benefits" despite several such JAMA published studies by the National Cancer Institute and the VA and one by the New Jersey Agent Orange Commission.
15.
Sonny Montgomery had opposed a similar bill the previous year.
16.
On September 13,1988, Sonny Montgomery became the first congressman to lead the US House in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance as a permanent part of its daily and morning business operations.
17.
Sonny Montgomery was a delegate to Democratic National Convention from Mississippi in 1996.