Shock of Combat Changed George H.W. Bush’s Life

[rangerrebew]

Shock of Combat Changed George H.W. Bush’s Life


By Walt Harrington
December 1, 2018 • HistoryNet
In 1944, Japanese fire sent a future president into the Pacific

President George H.W. Bush died November 30, 2018 at his home in Houston. He was 94. This story appeared in World War II magazine in May 2007.

IN THE OLD MAN GEORGE H.W. BUSH, you can still find shadows of the boy who enlisted on his 18th birthday in 1942 in high hopes of becoming a Navy pilot. The thatch of unruly brown hair. The crooked, ingratiating smile. The clear blue eyes and the long, angular face. The disjointed sentences that don’t always parse. The oddball sense of humor he became known for after he earned his wings and was floating in the Pacific on the carrier USS San Jacinto and flying torpedo bomber runs off its short deck. He reaches into his office desk in Houston and pulls out a copy of one of his favorite cartoons. It’s a man ordering a meal in a fine restaurant at a table across from a giant fly: “I’ll have the gazpacho, leeks vinaigrette with shrimp, marinated zucchini, orange mousse, a bottle of Cotes du Rhone Rouge ’59. And bring some shit for my fly.” We laugh at the joke, but he laughs harder.

As his old crew mates on the San Jac might say, “Same old George.”

http://www.historynet.com/george-h-w-bush-shock-of-combat.htm

[Fishrrman]

Excellent [but long] piece, I read it all.

Probably as inciteful as anything else I might read about Mr. Bush today.

Thanks for posting.