William Helms: “I have counted the number of today's U.S. Senators who were around on December 7, 1941. There are not many of us. Many…”

“I have counted the number of today's U.S. Senators who were around on December 7, 1941. There are not many of us. Many present members of the Senate were not born. The Honorable Strom Thurmond was indeed around, and bless his heart, I am so pleased the able senior Senator from South Carolina is still here and active. I remember that Sunday on December 7, 1941, when we came out of church and heard the news about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. As one of the staff editors of the afternoon 6-day-a-week newspaper in Raleigh, NC, we prevailed upon the then publisher of The Raleigh Times to publish an ``extra''--and it was the last ``extra" newspaper published in the State of North Carolina, to my knowledge. I recall that we sold approximately 12,000, which pleased the management of the newspaper. After the paper was put to bed, I walked up the street to the Raleigh post office and into the Navy recruiting station to volunteer. I did pretty well, but was turned down because of my hearing in my left ear. I recall my disappointment. But over in the corner was a regular Navy chief petty officer. Mr. President, I have never met a chief petty officer of the regular Navy who didn't talk out of one side of his mouth. He said: ``Hey, boy, come over here.'' I went. He said: ``You want to get in this man's Navy?'' I said: ``Yes, sir.'' He said: ``I have some friends in BUPERS.'' I did not know what BUPERS was, but I later found it was Bureau of Naval Personnel in Washington.”