[Mb-civic] Guardian Unlimited: The John Wayne dude who's kicking butts and getting things done

[harry.sifton at sympatico.ca]

HS spotted this on the Guardian Unlimited site and thought you should see it.

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Note from HS:

Sounds like this Dude will help get the job done!
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To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk

The John Wayne dude who's kicking butts and getting things done
Richard Luscombe
Thursday September 08 2005
The Guardian


His full title is Lieutenant General Russel L Honore, commanding general, First United States Army based out of Fort Gillem, Georgia. But to the sick, suffering and needy in New Orleans he is known simply as "that John Wayne dude who's getting things done".

The three-star general strode into town last week to take command of the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort, looking every bit the cigar-chomping, butt-kicking American military leader of yesteryear. He would not have looked out of place on a horse.

Instead, he chose a more conventional means of transport as he arrived to direct rescue and relief operations and turn around a rapidly degenerating security situation.

"He came off the doggone chopper," said Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans. He started cussing and people started moving. And he's getting some stuff done."

It was Mr Nagin who, in a forthright and emotional radio interview last week, criticised President George Bush's lethargic response to the crisis and called for a heavier military presence in the city as looters and armed gangs, taking potshots at police, diverted resources away from the rescue effort.

He got what he wanted when Gen Honore, a southerner, was given the job of directing the military operation, which was boosted this week with the deployment of 5,000 paratroopers. Mr Nagin said: "I give the president credit on this, he sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get stuff done."

Gen Honore's no-nonsense reputation has been built up during a 34-year military career in which he served in Korea, Germany and Iraq and won a chestful of awards, including the Distinguished Service Medal and a Bronze Star. A native of Louisiana, he is nicknamed "the Ragin' Cajun" for his habit of speaking his mind. For fun, he is said to enjoy throwing tomahawks.

He wasted no time in barking out the orders on his first walk through central New Orleans, commanding every national guardsman or police officer he came across to point their gun barrels towards the ground. "This is not Iraq," he told them. It was one sign that behind the iron demeanour is a leader in tune with the sensitivities of the mission.

Another came when he encountered an exhausted mother struggling to hold on to her two babies in the blistering heat. He took both children from her, handed them to soldiers and helped them to a coastguard boat, which took them off to be treated for dehydration.

He admits he was one of those angered when the federal response to the emergency appeared to be slow in coming. "These are families that are just waiting to get out of here," he said of people in the New Orleans convention centre and Superdome. "They are frustrated. I would be, too."

Later, he was spotted shouting into a phone and giving the directions himself as the first military aid convoy drove through the floodwaters to reach them.

Gen Honore graduated from university in Baton Rouge with a degree in vocational agriculture in 1971. He also holds a masters in human resources, providing skills put to good use in New Orleans and back at Fort Gillem, where his last job was supervising training for army units on their way to Iraq.

He is a family man, with a daughter who lived in New Orleans and other relatives in the surrounding area.

Army insiders say he is among the last of a dying breed in the US military, the type of commander who would not have any soldier do anything he would not be prepared do himself.

The hands-on approach will stand him in good stead for the challenges ahead. The Tampa Tribune this week recalled an alleged encounter years ago between Gen Honore and weapons procurement officers who were proposing new tanks, helicopters and rifles for his men. "You are fielding pieces of crap," he is said to have told them. "Is that clear enough."

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