He sure looks the part doesn't he?
Notice how he and John Bolton have taken widely divergent approaches to maintaining a 'stache.
Posted on 01/08/2008 1:07:45 PM PST by decimon
FOREST PARK, Ga. - The gruff, cigar-chomping general who led federal troops into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is convinced America hasn't learned its lesson from the storm.
As Lt. Gen. Russel Honore gets ready to retire from the Army and hand over his command on Friday, he says he wants to spend the rest of his life creating a "culture of preparedness" to prevent another post-disaster disaster.
"There's an attitude everywhere else that people are smarter than they are in New Orleans and in Mississippi. They're not," the 60-year-old general said at his office at Fort Gillem, just outside Atlanta. "What happened in New Orleans could have happened anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard."
During his 37-year Army career, Honore commanded troops in South Korea and prepared soldiers to fight in Iraq. After Katrina, the native of Lakeland, La., led the vast relief convoy that rolled into New Orleans during its darkest hour. The 22,000-member force was one of the largest federal deployments in the South since the end of the Civil War.
With a beret cocked to one side, a crisp, take-charge attitude (At news conferences, he ended sentences with the word "over," as if transmitting over military radio) and biting one-liners - "Don't get stuck on stupid!" he snapped at reporters - he impressed politicians and ordinary folks alike.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, for one, famously called him a "John Wayne dude."
Honore returned to Atlanta after the storm to focus on his main job as commander of the First Army, training National Guardsmen and reservists for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The devastation in his home state - the stranded residents, destroyed neighborhoods and bloated corpses - "left a passion in me to be a champion of something," he said.
His next project is still taking shape, but he wants to see civil defense classes for young people that would teach first aid and survival basics, such as how to purify water. He wants to lobby drug stores and other businesses to keep generators in case of a long power failure. He wants cities to stockpile food and water so they don't have to rely on the federal government.
And he wants to pressure every family to have an emergency plan, right down to backpacks with food, water, essential documents and medicine.
Although he hopes someday to return to Louisiana - he hasn't ruled out a try at politics - he plans to use Atlanta as a launching pad for the project. He said he has discussed the idea with Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue's staff and plans to meet with local business, civic and political leaders.
"In this new normal, with the possibility of terrorist attacks, natural disasters and industrial accidents, we need this culture of preparedness," he said. "A vast part of America still thinks, `That couldn't happen where I live.' And they are dead damn wrong."
(This version CORRECTS by deleting mention of `green' beret.)
“”There’s an attitude everywhere else that people are smarter than they are in New Orleans and in Mississippi. They’re not,” the 60-year-old general said at his office at Fort Gillem, just outside Atlanta. “What happened in New Orleans could have happened anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard.””
The difference is, sir, I do not and would not wait for your troops and FEMA to save me.
New Orleans has an “Uncle Sugar” mindset from years of welfare handouts. I stayed in Biloxi because my elderly mother and her even older friend needed me to protect them and etc.. The citizens of New Orleans had almost a week’s warning! They could’ve walked to safety!
I’m smart enough not to live or want to live in New Orleans.
I’m smart enough that I could have walked, biked, swam, boated out of NOLA on my own without being told how to or when.
I’ve been there. I don’t want to go back. Even for all the Heneiken in the world. (LOL)
I don’t care if NOLA falls in the bay and never comes back.
I don’t owe NOLA a damn thing. As a matter of fact, NOLA owes me and millions of other Americans some of our tax monies back because of their corruption and stupidity.
Screw em.
Let’s see if he can get the “stupid” unstuck in NO. I wish him luck but he doesn’t have that many lifetimes left to do it.
No andouille for you!
"He wants cities to stockpile food and water so they don't have to rely on the federal government."
Thanks for posting, good read. I’m ready, hope everybody else is. I’ve got..
Land, campers, deep water well, two generators, tractor, 4 wheelers for low fuel consumption go anywhere transportation. Diesel and Gas tanks thou only about 300 gallons. 4 wheel drives, food reserves, livestock and some cash (if it’s worth anything when the time comes) and a fairly large supply of guns and ammo, even a crossbow. And I don’t even consider myself a survivalist!
If he wants to spare people why not push the legislatures to make it illegal to build on a flood plain to start with?
Bullcrap, General. There was and is a culture of dependency and corruption in NO that makes even places like Washington DC and Baltimore look clean, and big ugly hurricanes aren't new.
Still, his emphasis on both collective and individual preparedness is a good thing.
“What happened in New Orleans could have happened anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard.”
Um, are there any other cities on the eastern seaboard that are largely built below sea level in a hurricane zone?
Still, there are other natural (and non-natural) disaster that could happen anywhere.
Much of Norfolk, VA is very near sea level. I've been there during a minor hurricane, and there was a lot of flooding. A Cat4 or Cat 5 would be ugly. Still, there are well defined evacuation routes, and there just isn't the political and social corruption that characterized NOLA.
All true enough but dense shoreline population centers are new. A repeat of a storm like the Long Island Express would indeed require some preparedness to escape disaster.
It's the 'non-natural' ones that pose the biggest threat: the main reason why we can't let an appeasing 'Rat anywhere near the WH.
Thanks for your 37 years of service, Gen. Honore and good luck in your endeavors.
The fact that NOLA residents re-elected the most incompetent boob ever to run a city government *AFTER* the Katrina disaster puts a nail in it, AFAIAC.
Right ... and I agree with him (and you) that preparedness is good.
My point is that NO is unique: an exceptionally corrupt populace, situated below sea level, hit by a really ugly storm. I've seen Virginians and Carolinians preparing for storms, and recovering after. The storms were smaller, and the preparation was better.
I think Gen. Honore is doing a good thing; I just don't want to see him get stuck on stupid.
Ironically...I just bought a house in norfolk.
Oh, well. If it goes under water, I will salvage the bricks.
He sure looks the part doesn't he?
Notice how he and John Bolton have taken widely divergent approaches to maintaining a 'stache.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.