Capt. Chuck Z. On Katrina My best friend Clay and I had the opportunity to help out at one of the local shelters for the evacuees from Katrina today. A great experience and something I'll be posting about very soon.

But for now, Capt Chuck Z, one of the bloggers I try to keep up with daily, has some thoughts about Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath. I don't completely agree with all his assessments, but I do want to highlight what he has to say about Lt Gen Honoré. I first heard Lt Gen Honoré was taking charge when Mayor Nagin of NOLA referred to him as follows, "I give the president some credit on this. He sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get some stuff done." (Translation - "Whewee! Am ah evah glad they sent somebody down hyah who know's what the heck they's doin' and can save my a**!")

Capt Chuck says,
"Why did they put LTG Honoré in charge of the military relief effort?
I have had the distinct pleasure of working as a lieutenant under LTG Honoré. Back then, he was a full colonel, and my brigade commander. Behind his back, we called him the Ragin’ Cajun; a name that he has probably had since he was a lieutenant. The thing that we respected and admired about him most was his ability to get down to the squad level and help leaders, even very junior leaders, figure out what was wrong; what they were doing wrong. And he would caveat a lot of his "counseling sessions" with words like “Son, if you don't get this straight, you’re gonna to end up dead... Grave. Yard. Dead.” He also had a penchant for firing stupid people. That, among other admirable traits, earned him a lot of respect among the junior leaders in the brigade. Just his personality, the way he runs the show, makes things happen. ... General Honoré has the strength of will and the strength of character to influence his men properly."

Please go on over and read the rest of Chuck's post. And here's another good story about this "soldier's soldier".  ¶ Tuesday, September 13, 2005