Heroes in Packards

Stormin’ Norman is dead, a general who was admired, trusted and trustworthy, who looked the part of a beloved war hero, General Norman Schwarzkopf, a great bear of a man.

My memory of a hero general from the Vietnam War is William Westmoreland who, by my recollection, came to speak to our class at the Naval War College, Newport, RI. Admiral Thomas Moorer, who was CNO and then Chairman of the Joint Chief, also came to speak to us. During the question and answer session after his presentation, an officer stood, expressed frustration with the president’s war policies, and asked Admiral Moorer what he would do. He looked around cautiously, asked the Vice Admiral who was president of the college if members of the press were present, then, assured that there were not, talked about using tactical nuclear weapons in the north. We were a ferocious group and he got a standing ovation.

Our other hero during my Navy years was Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, who eased many administrative regulations. His Z-grams popular with the sailors, authorized beards and mustaches, longer hair and sideburns. No beard or mustache for Linda's husband, but I did grow the sideburns, which in retrospect were ridiculous.

General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, hero of the Pacific War during WWII, was a great military leader but an arrogant man who played oneupmanship with President Truman and lost. General Eisenhower, Bradley, Marshall and others, WWII created many heroes. The summer of 1947 my aunt Ruth took me and my cousin Ann to Washington, DC partly as consolation after our grandmother died, for a couple weeks with EG, our aunt Evalyn. We rode from the L&N station in Pensacola to Montgomery where it was sweltering hot, saw a movie in an air conditioned theater, and when we came out the early evening was cool and damp because it had just rained. We caught our train, overnight Pullman car reservations to Washington Union station. 

On the Fourth of July we went to the fireworks celebration on the Mall, where war heroes spoke and were honored, among them Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz and I think Bull Halsey too. My memory is not what they said but that they arrived in Packard limousines with flags on the front fenders and were greeted with extended standing ovations. 

The rest of my memory of that evening is that as we were walking back to the car, it clouded up and rained and I was extremely upset about my brand new wool sportcoat getting wet.

TW+