BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  ACR 60
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   April 27, 2009

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
                                   Mike Eng, Chair
                  ACR 60 (Gilmore) - As Introduced:  April 13, 2009
           
          SUBJECT  :  State Route 46

           SUMMARY  :  Designates a segment of State Route (SR) 46 as the  
          Larry Stanley Pierce Memorial Highway.  Specifically,  this bill  :  
           

          1)Recounts the military career of Larry Stanley Pierce, a Staff  
            Sergeant in the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion of the 173rd  
            Airborne Brigade who gave his life in the service of his  
            country.  

          2)Designates the segment of SR 46 within the city limits of the  
            City of Wasco as the Larry Stanley Pierce Memorial Highway.  

          3)Requests the Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to  
            determine the cost of appropriate signs, consistent with the  
            signing requirements for the state highway system, showing  
            this special designation and, upon receiving donations from  
            nonstate sources sufficient to cover that cost, to erect those  
            signs.  

           EXISTING LAW  :  Assigns Caltrans the responsibility of operating  
          and maintaining state highways.  This responsibility includes  
          the installation and maintenance of highway signs.  

           FISCAL EFFECT  :  Unknown

           COMMENTS  :  Larry Stanley Pierce was a Staff Sergeant in the U.S.  
          Army and served in the 1st Battalion of the 173rd Airborne  
          Brigade.  He was assigned as a squad leader in charge of a  
          reconnaissance platoon during the Vietnam War, where on  
          September 20, 1965, he and his platoon were ambushed by hostile  
          forces with machine gun fire.  

          Sgt. Pierce and his platoon routed the ambushing force and gave  
          chase in order to further suppress the attacking enemy.  Upon  
          discovering an antipersonnel mine that could have destroyed his  
          entire squad, he used his own body to absorb the blast from the  
          mine, saving the lives of 29 of his soldiers.  








                                                                  ACR 60
                                                                  Page  2


          Larry Stanley Pierce was laid to rest at the Wasco Memorial Park  
          in the City of Wasco and was posthumously awarded the Medal of  
          Honor by President Lyndon Johnson.  

           REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :  

           Support 
           
          None received

           Opposition 
           
          None received
           
          Analysis Prepared by  :   Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093