Bob Kerrey: “I would ask unanimous consent if the manager of the bill would allow me to speak for a few moments about an individual…”

“I would ask unanimous consent if the manager of the bill would allow me to speak for a few moments about an individual whom I know the distinguished senior Senator from Virginia knows well, and that is the son of former Marine Gen. Chester Puller. Chester Puller himself was a great American hero. I met General Puller myself in 1969. I was, at the time, a patient at the Philadelphia Naval Hospital. Chester Puller was coming to the hospital to visit his son, and I frankly did not know who the general was. I was in the world's largest and most powerful Navy at the time, a lieutenant junior grade in that great naval force, and I was then a member of Seal Team 1, and we prided ourselves in knowing as little as possible about the Marine Corps, I must say. General Puller, nonetheless, struck all of us in that ward as a remarkable individual. And before I left the hospital, I was given the opportunity, if not coerced, to read his biography entitled simply 'Marine.' He received five Navy crosses, and from one who knows--I read the actions in each case, and it is remarkable to me that each one of them were deserving of his having received the Congressional Medal of Honor, remarkable actions, a career that spanned 40 years and four wars, a real soldier's general, and I have subsequently, having met him in 1969, become a very significant fan of Chester Puller.”