Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), the nation's longest-serving senator and a decorated World War II combat veteran, died Monday at 88. | He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in WWII. We thank you, sir, for your bravery and your service. |
Inouye had served in the Senate since 1963 and represented Hawaii since 1954, serving as the Aloha State's first congressman beginning in 1959. He served as the Senate pro tempore -- the designation for the chamber's longest-serving Senator -- and the person third in line to the presidency. He also chaired the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee at the time of his death.
As The Post's Jason Horowitz wrote in a 2010 profile of Inouye: "More than any other statesman in the history of these volcanic islands -- more than Kamehameha the Great, who united them into a kingdom in 1810, or Gov. John Burns, who led the political revolution that established Democratic Party rule here in 1954 -- Inouye, 86, has ruled over Hawaii."