Seeking to ServeVeteran Commissioner Recalls Unique Military Experience

It was December 1952, and 25-year-old Billy Waldrop, a gun captain in the U.S. Navy, had several things on his mind. Waldrop’s wife, Clara June, was expecting the couple’s third child any day now, and Waldrop’s ship, the USS Helena, was, at the moment, unreachable. The 13,600-ton, Baltimore-class heavy cruiser had taken on a special passenger in Guam: Dwight D. Eisenhower.
“No one was really supposed to know where we were,” Waldrop explained, “being that the president-elect was on board.” The USS Helena, at the end of her third combat deployment, was carrying Eisenhower from Guam to Hawaii after his post-election visit to Korea. Consequently, from Dec. 1 to Dec. 11, the ship received no radiograms and no mail.
A couple of moments in that time frame remain vivid memories for Waldrop, who was a captain on an 8-inch gun, the biggest gun on the ship. First there was his glimpse of Eisenhower, who surveyed some 1,300 soldiers as they stood at attention on the USS Helena. And then there was the moment he finally received the radiogram telling him he had a new baby, Sandra, born Dec. 2, 1952.
“I found out when I arrived in Pearl Harbor that I had an 11-day-old daughter,” Waldrop said.
Weeks later Waldrop completed his Navy tour as a gunner’s mate 3rd class and returned home to Prairie Hill where he went into the grain business with his father. The pair worked as grain dealers, farmers and ranchers until Waldrop ran for county commissioner in 1982. Now in his final term, Waldrop will complete 24 years on the commissioners court when he retires next year.