Gen Honore Retires

[Smokey]

Many of you may remember Lt Gen Honore who headed up the military's involvement in New Orleans after Katrina. There were pictures of CAP personnel with him that showed up on various sites.

Well, he is retiring and has a few things to say worth hearing...below is from Military.com.....

FOREST PARK, Ga. - The gruff, cigar-chomping general who led federal troops into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is convinced America hasn't learned its lesson from the storm.

As Lt. Gen. Russel Honore gets ready to retire from the Army and hand over his command on Friday, he says he wants to spend the rest of his life creating a "culture of preparedness" to prevent another post-disaster disaster.

"There's an attitude everywhere else that people are smarter than they are in New Orleans and in Mississippi. They're not," the 60-year-old general said at his office at Fort Gillem, just outside Atlanta. "What happened in New Orleans could have happened anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard."

During his 37-year Army career, Honore commanded troops in South Korea and prepared Soldiers to fight in Iraq. After Katrina, the native of Lakeland, La., led the vast relief convoy that rolled into New Orleans during its darkest hour. The 22,000-member force was one of the largest federal deployments in the South since the end of the Civil War.

With a beret cocked to one side, a crisp, take-charge attitude (At news conferences, he ended sentences with the word "over," as if transmitting over military radio) and biting one-liners - "Don't get stuck on stupid!" he snapped at reporters - he impressed politicians and ordinary folks alike.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, for one, famously called him a "John Wayne dude."

Honore returned to Atlanta after the storm to focus on his main job as commander of the First Army, training National Guardsmen and reservists for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The devastation in his home state - the stranded residents, destroyed neighborhoods and bloated corpses - "left a passion in me to be a champion of something," he said.

His next project is still taking shape, but he wants to see civil defense classes for young people that would teach first aid and survival basics, such as how to purify water. He wants to lobby drug stores and other businesses to keep generators in case of a long power failure. He wants cities to stockpile food and water so they don't have to rely on the federal government.

And he wants to pressure every family to have an emergency plan, right down to backpacks with food, water, essential documents and medicine.

Although he hopes someday to return to Louisiana - he hasn't ruled out a try at politics - he plans to use Atlanta as a launching pad for the project. He said he has discussed the idea with Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue's staff and plans to meet with local business, civic and political leaders.

"In this new normal, with the possibility of terrorist attacks, natural disasters and industrial accidents, we need this culture of preparedness," he said. "A vast part of America still thinks, `That couldn't happen where I live.' And they are dead [darn] wrong."

[smj58501]

Draft him into CAP. It could be the perfect springboard for some of the post retirement things he wants to accomplish

[LtCol White]

This same article was in the New Orleans paper today. I met the General a fewl times here after the storm. Impressive man. Thank God we had him here.

[flyguy06]

I have had many encounters with General Honore. He trained up my National Guard Brigade during our deployment. And when I say he trained us thats what I mean. The main thing I like about him is he is unlike any other General Officer (GO) I have ever seen. Most GO's come around make some speech about how we are all great Americans and then they laeve. Honore actually gave briefings and AAR's. He talked tactics to us. i have never seen a GO talk about support by fire and manuever elements. You would have thought he was reliving his Company Commander days.

I was a Company XO at the time and he came to watch our Company train up. He told me the importance of maintance and he told me toset up a 24 hour operation in the motor pol (We were a Bradley Company) and I did just that.

I met him again when he came to alocal church in my community to talk about Preparedness. I have thought about gathering some CAP Senior Members together and inviting hom to speak. i didnt realize he was retiring on Friday. Guess I will going to his ceremony. Ft Gillem is only 15 minutes from my house

[Johnny Yuma]

"There's an attitude everywhere else that people are smarter than they are in New Orleans and in Mississippi. They're not," the 60-year-old general said at his office at Fort Gillem, just outside Atlanta. "What happened in New Orleans could have happened anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard."

The problem was never intelligence, it was an entitlement mindset.

What happened in New Orleans didn't happen in Mississippi, or East Texas, or Western Alabama. It certainly hasn't happened that way in Florida when they've been hit with multiple storms in a year.

What really happened in New Orleans is that the institutionalized corruption caught up with them. Their entire disaster plan from Ray Nagin to Governor Blanco was to roll over on their backs and wait for the Feds to bail them out.

There were unfortunately a lot of Joe Sixpacks living down there that didn't know anything about self reliance either. Funny how a lot of these folks were transplanted elsewhere,  met some people who didn't wait on government to fix everything and got religion. They're not moving back!

I REALLY like Honore, he did a great job down there. However he was good because the local and state government was in a shambles and they knew to stay out of his way.  I'm afraid if he were to enter public office in Louisiana the political machine down there would tear him apart.

[flyerthom]

Draft him into CAP. It could be the perfect springboard for some of the post retirement things he wants to accomplish

Maybe he's the man needed to go in kick FEMA in the butt.

[flyguy06]

Draft him into CAP. It could be the perfect springboard for some of the post retirement things he wants to accomplish

Then he'd have to go from LTG to Lt. Col.  That would interesting to see but highly unlikely

[capchiro]

Johnny, isn't that chapter two of the book of Armaments??

[Johnny Yuma]

Johnny, isn't that chapter two of the book of Armaments??

I'll have to go back through my religious texts and find out

[Laplace]

Draft him into CAP. It could be the perfect springboard for some of the post retirement things he wants to accomplish

His next project is still taking shape, but he wants to see civil defense classes for young people that would teach first aid and survival basics, such as how to purify water. He wants to lobby drug stores and other businesses to keep generators in case of a long power failure.

If not a member, he could be a spokesman for CAP or assist with public service announcements to accomplish his above projects.  Hell, even if we would have to pay him, it would be a better public relations investment than NASCAR 

[flyguy06]

I went to the Change of Command today. it was very nice.