THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501290083
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KERRY DOUGHERTY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Sen. Strom Thurmond, as famous for his longevity as his legislative record in Congress, strode aboard the guided missile cruiser South Carolina Saturday for the vessel's 20th anniversary.
The ship's rails were draped in red, white and blue bunting, just as they had been two decades earlier when the Republican senator from South Carolina had stood in the same spot at the ship's commissioning.
On Saturday, the 92-year-old chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee vowed he would be back yet again.
``I look forward to being here 10 more years from now,'' Thurmond said with a smile. ``And if I'm not here I'll be looking down on you and wishing you well.''
Thurmond was greeted by a crowd of warmly dressed dignitaries huddled under a tent erected on the vessel's deck. The plastic side panels, snapping in the raw January wind, offered noisy protection from a gathering winter storm. Most members of the South Carolina's crew were not as fortunate. Wearing service dress blues, they stood stoically on the open deck for the hourlong ceremony.
Under the tent, the U.S. Atlantic Fleet Band played rousing selections from ``Sousa's Favorite March Book'' as an icy rain began to fall.
When Thurmond approached the podium, the musicians switched to ``Carolina in the Morning'' and the aging senator with curiously copper-colored hair did a little impromptu dance.
Thurmond was born in 1902, during Theodore Roosevelt's presidency.
At the time of his birth, the U.S. Navy still had sailing ships. Nuclear-powered vessels like the South Carolina were more than 50 years in the future.
In his remarks, Thurmond decried a recent ``decline of the nation's superb military forces'' and pledged to support ``reasonable pay raises for our military and increased funding for quality of life requirements.''
``In today's political environment, some individuals are willing to forgo modernization to satisfy immediate goals. I reject such a notion,'' Thurmond said. ``My concern for the present is not that the armed forces will fail, but that they will pay too high a price to succeed in the future. We must continue to provide resources to ensure our forces are capable of winning against threats that we cannot now envision.''
After the ceremony, Thurmond posed for photos with a handful of ``plank owners'' - officers who had been on board the South Carolina when the ship was commissioned and who returned to Norfolk for Saturday's celebration. He also met with the 20 crew members who hail from South Carolina.
One young sailor, Eugene Evans from Lynchburg, S.C., said he thought Thurmond's visit was ``great.'' Although he is an African American, Evans said he was not concerned with Thurmond's record as a strict segregationist who once called the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act a ``tragic day for America.''
``I'm the type of person who tries to be fair,'' said Evans. ``I think that was in the past. He's here and it's very exciting.''
The current crew of the South Carolina has 49 officers, 42 chief petty officers and 528 enlisted members. In remarks to the gathering, Capt. Michael G. Gaffney, commanding officer of the South Carolina, noted that only nine current crew members were even in the Navy 20 years ago.
``Over half the crew is less than 25 years old,'' he said, as Thurmond shook his head and smiled. ``We're a young crew.'' ILLUSTRATION: MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff
Capt. Michael G. Gaffney, right, and Sen. Strom Thurmond aboard the
South Carolina Saturday.
by CNB