Hail to the Chief

George H.W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States, died last night, November 30, 2018 at the age of 94 years.  President Bush was the last of the so-called "Greatest Generation" to serve as President, and I will always remember him as a fellow United States Naval Officer (he joined the Navy as an eighteen year-old and became the youngest Naval aviator in history) and my first Commander in Chief (he was President when I first received my commission and took my oath as an officer). 


While I didn't always agree with his political views, I greatly respected and admired him for the person that he was throughout his life.  After being shot down in the South Pacific theater during World War II, he was rescued by a submarine and eventually made it back to his squadron after several days.  He was one of the lucky ones that survived without being captured by the Japanese, and he once asked himself, "Why had I been spared and what did God have for me?"  His experiences during the WWII further shaped him and had a profound impact on the kind of leader that he eventually became.


President Bush lived a life of privilege.  He was born to wealthy parents and attended Yale University after serving in the Navy.  After graduating from Yale, he joined the oil business and became a millionaire by the age of 40 years.  He eventually entered politics, and he served as a member of Congress in the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Director of Central Intelligence, Vice-President to President Ronald Reagan, and eventually as the 41st President of the United States.  Undoubtedly, he used the advantages in life that he enjoyed and leveraged them into a successful career.  A reporter from the BBC once asked him whether he was an elitist.


He replied, "What's wrong with excellence?  What's wrong with having a good education?  What's wrong with having excelled in my life and business or being a good ambassador to China or the United Nations, or having done an excellent job at the CIA?  I know that sounds a little immodest, but that's my record."


But there was always more to him than that.  I remember talking to one of the Navy physicians who worked with the presidential medical team during President Bush's time in office.  He told me that President Bush was one of the nicest, most down to Earth individuals he had ever met.  "The President always seemed to know everyone's name - more importantly, he also knew them as individuals.  He would ask about their children and families, and he had this unbelievable memory that allowed him to remember every personal detail of the lives of the individuals who worked for him."


President Bush became the kind of leader that we so desperately need today.  He was a man of integrity.  He lived the core values of his Navy - Courage, Honor, and Commitment.  Even if he did not agree with you, he would listen to you.  And perhaps most importantly, he cared.


Last year on December 7th, I posted about a speech that President Bush gave on the 50th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor.  As he finished his speech, fighting back tears and voice cracking, he said,


"Look at the water here, clear and quiet, bidding us to sum up and remember. One day, in what now seems another lifetime, it wrapped its arms around the finest sons any nation could ever have, and it carried them to a better world.  May God bless them. And may God bless America, the most wondrous land on Earth."


Fair winds and following seas, sir.  We have the watch.