[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16843-16845]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    IN REMEMBRANCE OF STROM THURMOND

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I wish to take a few minutes at this 
time to express my sympathy to the family of Senator Strom Thurmond, 
one of America's most dynamic leaders in this past century, a man who 
lived through extraordinary change in his life, a man whose commitment 
to his country was unwavering.
  I had the opportunity in 1997 to travel with him to China. He was 94, 
I believe, at that time. His vigor and his strength were 
extraordinarily impressive to me and all of us who traveled with him. 
He wanted to see The Wall. He wanted to meet the people of China. He 
would tell them: America and China are friends. We want to be better 
friends. He made very perceptive and appropriate remarks.
  Then we met Jiang Zemin at his resort in the month of their vacation 
time and Strom made an extraordinary speech that reflected so well 
America and had so comprehensive an understanding of the relationships 
of our countries. That just struck me particularly.
  We went out to a Chinese army base. He trooped the line of a group of 
Chinese troops. I remember saying to him afterwards that I never 
thought I would be in Communist China, seeing Strom Thurmond, the great 
cold warrior, troop the line of a group of Chinese troops. But he was 
extraordinary in that way.
  I had come up to this Senate in the mid-1980s as a nominee and it 
wasn't a very pleasant experience. I will never forget and will always 
appreciate his courtesy and support for me at that time and enjoyed 
responding a little bit to that when I was able to come back to this 
Senate and he was leader on the Senate Judiciary Committee, chairman of 
the Armed Services Committee. It was just a pleasure to work with him.
  He lived through a complete change in the South. He reflected the 
change that went on in our region of the country. I think he did it in 
a positive and especially important way. His leadership in moving from 
the days of segregation to a new era of relations between the races was 
very important and positive throughout the South.
  He served his country in an almost unprecedented way. He was 40 years 
old when World War II began. He was an elected judge in his home State 
and he was an army reservist. He insisted that he be allowed to be on 
active duty and they allowed him to do so. I understand at first it 
wasn't going to happen.
  He ended up in England when they were planning for the Normandy 
invasion. A number of people were called upon to fly gliders in during 
that invasion at the time. He volunteered to fly on a glider, one of 
the most dangerous missions there could be. The planes would pull up 
these gliders and get them going and just let them go and they would 
have to find a place to land down behind enemy lines--extraordinarily 
high risk. Many were killed on landing. Many were killed in combat, 
many were separated, many were injured. That is the kind of man Strom 
Thurmond was.
  I asked him one time: Strom, did you stay in until Germany 
surrendered?
  He said: Oh, yes, we stayed until Germany surrendered and we were on 
a train coming back when they declared the war on Japan was over. We 
were being sent to the East.
  He was prepared to go there. As long as this country was in combat he 
wanted to be there, committing his life, his every effort to the 
defense of this Republic. He did so in the Senate and he did so in 
uniform and as a leader in South Carolina.
  He was beloved in his State, respected to an awesome degree. He won 
his Senate race on a write-in vote with a substantial majority, the 
only Member, I believe, in the history of this Senate ever to be 
elected on a write-in vote. That shows the power and the energy and the 
vigor and the leadership of this man. I have appreciated his 
friendship.
  I know his family is hurting at this time and my sympathies are 
extended to them. I know the great members of his staff, Duke Short and 
the whole team that worked with him for so many years, are hurting 
today and our sympathies go out to them as well as to the family.
  Mr. President, I know you served with Senator Thurmond so many years. 
The two of you together have

[[Page 16844]]

conducted a remarkable effort to maintain our military strength and 
leadership in the world. He was certainly committed to that.
  There are many other things I could say. I will not at this time. I 
just express my sympathy to his family, his friends, the people of 
South Carolina, and those around this great country who will mourn his 
passing.
  I thank the President and yield the floor.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. May the Chair request the Senator to 
occupy the Chair so this Senator may speak about Senator Thurmond?
  Mr. SESSIONS. I will be honored to.
  Mr. STEVENS addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sessions). The Senator from Alaska.
  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, next Tuesday it will be my honor to be 
part of the funeral delegation to South Carolina to attend the funeral 
of our departed President pro tempore. When I first came to the Senate, 
I was in the Gallery up there watching the debate on the Alaska 
statehood bill. A filibuster was being led against that bill by the 
Senator from South Carolina. As a matter of fact, he held up the bill 
for a considerable period of time.
  Because of his opposition, we developed a strategy of trying to get 
the bill passed by the Senate without amendment--passed by the Senate 
as it had come to us from the House, without amendment. It was, I 
think, the only statehood bill in history that ever passed both Houses 
in identical form without amendment by the Senate. We did that because 
we knew if the bill went to conference and came back, Strom Thurmond 
would have another shot at the bill and another filibuster.
  I remember that today because I remember how, when I did finally 
arrive here in 1968 as a Member of the Senate, Strom came up to me and 
said: I remember you, boy.
  And he remembered I had been part of the group from the Eisenhower 
delegation that worked on our bill. We formed a friendship that day 
that I never expected to have.
  Strom was, as I have said, a distinguished member of the U.S. armed 
services. He was the oldest officer to land in Normandy. As we all 
know, he landed in a glider. The pilot was killed. I talked about that 
with Strom because I had been trained to fly gliders. Even though I was 
a pilot, some of us were trained to fly gliders in case they needed 
glider pilots and I had anticipated I might have gone to Normandy. 
Instead, I was sent to China. When I returned and was a Member of the 
Senate here, we often discussed our wartime service. Of course, he was 
considerably older than I was and his experience was entirely 
different. But over the years I grew, really, to have great fondness 
for Senator Thurmond, despite our original, really, antagonism. Believe 
me, as an advocate for statehood for my State, anyone who was going to 
filibuster that bill was not exactly a friend at that time. But as we 
grew together and grew older together here in the Senate, Strom became 
a person who did give me a lot of guidance. At one time he was chairman 
of the Armed Services Committee and I was chairman of the Defense 
Subcommittee for Appropriations, and we did a lot of work together.
  But my memory of Strom really goes back to the time after 1981 when 
we had a dinner for the new President pro tempore as we had taken the 
majority in the Senate. Strom became President pro tempore. I was the 
assistant leader. Senator Baker was the leader. We had a dinner at one 
of the local hotels. Senator Baker and his wife Joy and I and my wife 
Catherine were at the head table. When it became Strom's time to thank 
the people there for honoring him, he started talking with the people 
at the head table, and he came to me. I had just been remarried. 
Catherine and I were married in December of 1980. Just before that 
dinner, she had informed me we were going to have a child.
  Strom stood up and was introducing people. He came to me and made 
some kind remarks about me. And he turned and said: Here is his lovely 
lady who has now joined our family. She is a beautiful woman, and isn't 
it nice that she is with child?
  I thought Catherine was going to break my arm and bust my head. I 
grabbed Strom and asked him to come over and tell Catherine I had not 
told him that. She did listen to him for a moment or two. And he 
smiled, and said: Child, he never told me. He never told me anything 
about that. He said: I just looked at you. I can tell when a woman is 
in flower.
  Mr. President, being from Alabama, you can understand the way he 
pronounced that.
  It is something I will never forget.
  When our child came, he became Uncle Strom to Lily Stevens. Every day 
he sat here in that chair, he would ask me about Lily. Lily, as a 
matter of fact, last evening had a tear in her voice as she called to 
tell me she had heard about Strom.
  Strom was really a member of this Senate family. He got to know every 
one of us in a way that I think no one else did because no one else was 
near 100 years old. He was like a 1,000-pound gorilla around here; he 
did what he wanted to do, but he did it in a way which really reflected 
his southern heritage. He was a southern gentleman to the core.
  I have to tell the Senate that there are many things Senator Strom 
Thurmond did in his life with which I didn't agree. There were many 
votes he cast here on the floor that I opposed. But I can't think of a 
person who more epitomized being a Senator and what it meant to be a 
Senator. He lived up to his principles, and he lived up to the idea of 
what this democracy is about. He was, I believe, one of the finest 
Senators who will ever serve in this body.
  I am honored, following him as President pro tempore, to go back and 
participate in the services and to once again remind his people who 
sent him to the Senate that he was a person who became a very 
distinguished Senator whom history will always admire.
  Thank you very much.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Chafee). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I am deeply moved this morning, as are 
Senators all over America today--not only those who are present in the 
Senate, but so many who have gone on from the Senate to other careers--
about the loss of our distinguished colleague Senator Thurmond. I think 
it is coincidental, and indeed most fitting, that the Presiding Officer 
in the Chamber this morning is the son of the distinguished Senator 
from Rhode Island, Senator John Chafee.
  I first met Senator Thurmond when I joined then the Secretary of the 
Navy, John Chafee, as his principal deputy and in later years to 
succeed him. Really, our first call was to come to the Senate to meet 
with Richard Russell, John Stennis, Strom Thurmond, John Tower, and 
Barry Goldwater. I remember our calls as the brand-new team of the 
Secretary of the Navy during the height of the war in Vietnam--at least 
one of the periods of great intensity--was in 1969. Senator Thurmond 
greeted us in his office in the same way that he greeted me throughout 
my 25 years in the Senate. Each of those years--except since his 
retirement in January that I shared with him, as did John Chafee and 
others--it was a learning experience every day you were with him.
  I stop to think of the men and women of the Armed Forces today all 
across the world, engaged in fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, and 
guarding the outposts of freedom. They have not lost Strom Thurmond 
because they have the wealth of the memories of him. I don't know of 
any class of individual--perhaps other than his immediate family--for 
whom Senator Thurmond had a deeper or more abiding love and devotion 
than those in uniform.
  This record last night covered briefly his distinguished military 
career, and I don't doubt others will address that.

[[Page 16845]]

But we always remember that he was a judge in the State of South 
Carolina. By virtue of his age at that time--I think right on the brink 
of 40, give or take a year--he would not have been subjected to the 
draft. He would not, by virtue of his judicial position, have had to 
leave that position and go into the Armed Forces--other than by his own 
free will. He resigned his judicial post to go into the ranks of the 
U.S. Army, where he served with great distinction, going in on D-Day 
with the airborne assault divisions, landing, helping those who were 
wounded--that was his first call--and then marshaling the forces to 
mount the offensive against the German army, and going through those 
matters until victory in May of 1945.
  When we walked into his office, two things always struck me. One was 
the portrait that was obviously painted in the period when he was 
Governor--straight, tall, and erect, eyes that were penetrating, eyes 
that reflected a tremendous inner confidence and conviction, but eyes 
that had a soft side, because he did have a soft side. He loved humor. 
He was very often the object of a lot of humor, including respectfully 
from this humble Senator. But what a tower of strength. I served with 
him these many years on the committee as really an aide-de-camp--yes, a 
fellow Senator, but I was happy to be ``general'' Strom Thurmond's 
aide-de-camp on many missions--missions that took me abroad on 
occasions when he was chairman, and missions from which I learned so 
much at the hand of the great master on the subject of national events. 
He was unwavering in his steadfast support of Presidents, be they 
Democrat or Republican, and unwavering in his resolve for the care of 
the men and women in uniform on active duty, their families, the 
retirees. And, oh, Mr. President, did he love the National Guard. There 
wasn't a bill that went through the Armed Services Committee and 
conference when he wouldn't tug on my shoulder and say let's beef up a 
little bit for the Guard and Reserve here. Remember, in times of 
crisis, they are among the first to respond.
  That bit of wisdom has proven ever so true. Going back to the Balkans 
campaign, the Guard was actively engaged at all levels of that 
campaign. The Air Guard, for example, flew so many of the missions 
carrying food, medicine, and other supplies to the ravaged civilians 
and others in Sarajevo. I remember I joined one time in one of those 
missions. I remember it so well because the plane behind ours was shot 
down and lost--just to point up the risks that those Air Guard took on 
those missions.
  Now, today, in Operation Iraqi freedom, worldwide against terrorism, 
once again the Guard and Reserve are in the forefront--a Guard and 
Reserve that have benefited through the many years of Strom Thurmond 
being a Senator and receiving a fair allocation of equipment and money, 
often in competition with the regular forces.
  But Strom Thurmond was there with his watchful eye on the Armed 
Services Committee to ensure that degree of fairness for the Guard and 
Reserve. He rose to the rank of major general. I mentioned his portrait 
as you walked in. Then, in a very discreet way, there was a large frame 
that contained all of his many decorations. He rarely talked about 
them. As a matter of fact, only after one tried to elicit facts from 
him would he share facts about the combat of war and what he received 
in World War II, and the other recognitions by our Government and other 
governments for his contribution to freedom worldwide.
  So I say to my dear friend--really a big brother--I thank him for all 
he has done for the world, for the Nation, for this humble Senator and, 
I daresay, many others of my comtemporaries, as we came along in this 
institution on the learning curve that was often at the hands of Strom 
Thurmond.
  My final thoughts are with his family, his wife and children, all of 
whom I have known throughout these years, and with whom I have had the 
privilege so often to be photographed, from little sizes all the way 
up, as we do through the years with our colleagues. But I know the 
Presiding Officer's father, were he here today, would join in the most 
fervent and heartfelt expressions with regard to our comrad, our 
colleague, our dear friend, Strom Thurmond.

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