Mershon Center affiliate Peter Mansoor was quoted in a speech by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) on the House floor last week paying tribute to civilians who have served in difficult regions around the world.

Here's what Rep. Wolf said: "Dr. Peter R. Mansoor, the Raymond E. Mason Jr. Chair in Military History and the former Executive Officer to Gen. David Petraeus, when he was commander of the multinational forces in Iraq had this to say about civilian service: 'The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been difficult ventures, but the nation could not have achieved its objectives in either conflict without the support of American civilians, who came to the fight with a number of critical specialties and who shouldered more of the load than their numbers would suggest. The Nation owes our civilian veterans a great deal of gratitude for their service in the nation's wars since 9/11.'"

Mansoor is author or editor of four books including Baghdad at Sunrise: A Brigade Commander's War in Iraq (Yale University Press, 2008), named non-fiction book of the year by the Ohioana Library Association; Hybrid Warfare: Fighting Complex Opponents from the Ancient World to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2012), edited with Williamson Murray and based on a 2010 conference at the Mershon Center; and the forthcoming Surge: My Journey with General David Petraeus and the Remaking of the Iraq War, to be published by Yale University Press.

A full PDF transcript of Rep. Wolf’s remarks can be at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2013-07-24/pdf/CREC-2013-07-24-pt1-PgE1126-7.pdf#page=1.