During one session at the pool, which he managed, I was startled as I heard him shouting (screaming would be more like it) at one of the Red Cross representatives.
Apparently she had asked him if he would allow her to sell refreshments to the staff and students.
"I had my left leg shot to pieces and was staggering and dripping with blood." He said to her in a furious tone. "My whole platoon was either dead or on stretchers and you wanted to sell us doughnuts for 25 cents apiece?!!!"
The coach even raised his arm and shook it over her head, he was that fired up. "F*ck the Red Cross!! You built a reputation serving soldiers in war, but you really didn't deserve it. You--out there in the middle of no-man's land among the dead and the dying--tried to make a buck off wounded soldiers!"
The coach began to walk away, to my relief, and then wheeled abruptly about to the awestruck Red Cross Lady.
"F*ck the Red Cross!!" He yelled so loudly that everyone turned to listen---it was a pure "pregnant silence." (200 people).
My point: Then I was too young (ca. 18 yrs.) to fully comprehend fully all the reasons for his outrage, but this recent controversy is too close to the same M.O. that the Red Cross has been accused of before.
Then, I thought my coach to be a hard-assed jerk. Now, I'm thinking I might have been wrong.