America has been fortunate to have Generals and Admirals like Storming Norman when we have needed them.
There are a lot of stories about him. One I heard over a decade ago may be a fable.
There was a fly fishing guide in the PNW, who was a terrific instructor and he ran fishing camps for a week.
Attending one of those camps for a week, reminded many of us of our bootcamp days. It was rumored this guide had been a Boot Camp DI. You were met in a parking lot by the guide and his assistant and told to grab your gear from your vehicle and told you would leave your vehicle there while you were in the fishing camp.
The fishing camp was a few miles away. Once you were there, it was ran like a boot camp with early to rise and early to bed. During your rest times in the daylight, you were to clean your fly lines, check your knots to make sure your rods and reels were in good condition. Most of us were able to tie perfect fishing knots in the dark and get our rods and reels/lines geared up for our next assualt on the river.
Norman attended a one week camp during a blazing hot summer.
At the camp, he apparently, heard that the salty instructor/guide had been a DI.
One day during a one on one dressing down section, Norman asked the guide if he had been an Army DI. The guide said no, he was a Marine.
To which, Norman supposedly said, “Thank God, I was fraid that you might have been an Army DI!”
The guide responded with on of his rare grins and said, “Not Army, Sir!”.
Years later the guide commented that, “The General was one of his best students ever, and if you didn’t know who he was. You would ever know that he was one of highest ranking American generals in history and one of the best.
That is a great story, thanks for sharing. I wish we had Generals today like Stormin’ Norman. They have all been tured into little PC wusses.
hahaha...great story! May simply be anecdotal, but seems to illustrate well what many of us think of him!