My favorite story of all time

[Mitch f]

This story is 100% true also

An old member of the Missouri Smallmouth alliance, Norm Leppo passed away a couple of years ago at 93 years old I believe. Norm was a good friend. Forgive me if you’ve already heard this. 

Norm grew up in a very well to do family, they were also in the inner circle with famous people.  
Norm went off to join the Navy and had to go to boot camp. After boot camp he came home  to find that his mom had thrown a big party. Norm walked into to a full house of people. He immediately looked over and saw Admiral Chester Nimitz…..Yes, the admiral Nimitz!!! 
He tried to leave the scene as fast as possible and escape to the basement to avoid the situation because of the deep respect and fear he had for Admiral Nimitz. Before he could quietly get out of the situation, his mom grabbed him by the arm and pulled him over to Admiral Nimitz. She introduced him to Admiral Nimitz by saying “Norm, this is Chester…he’s in the Navy too!!!”
 

[Terrierman]

That's a good one.

[Johnsfolly]

7 hours ago, Mitch f said:

This story is 100% true also

An old member of the Missouri Smallmouth alliance, Norm Leppo passed away a couple of years ago at 93 years old I believe. Norm was a good friend. Forgive me if you’ve already heard this. 

Norm grew up in a very well to do family, they were also in the inner circle with famous people.  
Norm went off to join the Navy and had to go to boot camp. After boot camp he came home  to find that his mom had thrown a big party. Norm walked into to a full house of people. He immediately looked over and saw Admiral Chester Nimitz…..Yes, the admiral Nimitz!!! 
He tried to leave the scene as fast as possible and escape to the basement to avoid the situation because of the deep respect and fear he had for Admiral Nimitz. Before he could quietly get out of the situation, his mom grabbed him by the arm and pulled him over to Admiral Nimitz. She introduced him to Admiral Nimitz by saying “Norm, this is Chester…he’s in the Navy too!!!”
 

That would be like being introduced to Michael Jordan. Oh and he likes to play basketball too😆

[Mitch f]

2 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

That would be like being introduced to Michael Jordan. Oh and he likes to play basketball too😆

Exactly 😂

[Al Agnew]

Yeah, that was a great story, and it was great to hear it from Norm.  Great guy!

I wonder how Nimitz handled that kind of thing.  Was he protective of his image or authority?  The only thing remotely like that which I ever experienced was, not too long after the first Gulf War, I was the featured artist at a big art show, and for whatever reason they had General Norman Schwarzkopf there to give some kind of keynote speech.  I met him, and talked rather briefly to him.  But at one point during the proceedings, the show people had hired some quite beautiful and scantily clad ladies to parade around, photographer in tow, and generally provide some eye candy.  They latched onto General Schwarzkopf and draped themselves all over him, the photographer snapping photos.  Schwarzkopf immediately pushed them away, his security detail went bananas, and the photographer's film was confiscated.  Whether or not Schwarzkopf enjoyed having the ladies all over him, he had an image to protect at all costs.  I suspect some heads rolled among the security people.

And by the way, I found him to be quite gracious and personable.

  

[Mitch f]

22 minutes ago, Al Agnew said:

Yeah, that was a great story, and it was great to hear it from Norm.  Great guy!

I wonder how Nimitz handled that kind of thing.  Was he protective of his image or authority?  The only thing remotely like that which I ever experienced was, not too long after the first Gulf War, I was the featured artist at a big art show, and for whatever reason they had General Norman Schwarzkopf there to give some kind of keynote speech.  I met him, and talked rather briefly to him.  But at one point during the proceedings, the show people had hired some quite beautiful and scantily clad ladies to parade around, photographer in tow, and generally provide some eye candy.  They latched onto General Schwarzkopf and draped themselves all over him, the photographer snapping photos.  Schwarzkopf immediately pushed them away, his security detail went bananas, and the photographer's film was confiscated.  Whether or not Schwarzkopf enjoyed having the ladies all over him, he had an image to protect at all costs.  I suspect some heads rolled among the security people.

And by the way, I found him to be quite gracious and personable.

  

My thinking was that Nimitz in that situation probably just laughed it off. In a different situation he would’ve probably been pissed and took it as a symbol of horrible disrespect. 
 

that’s a great story about Schwartzkof !!