“Stuck on Stupid” General Retires

General Honore, who famously called out a reporter for being “stuck on stupid” is retiring. He was a real hero to many of us in the New Orleans metro area after Katrina. We weren’t just grateful for the convoys of supplies he brought in, but for his no-nonsense attitude when it sometimes seemed like everything was falling apart. After weeks of wielding chainsaws, doing grueling cleanup work, and seeing the media daily play up every bad thing while ignoring the good, watching the General smack down this reporter was a refreshing break. The only thing that could have improved that moment would have been if he’d been addressing Shep Smith or Geraldo.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVBY_SqzJtI[/youtube]

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, in Pointe Coupee Parish, 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 green beret cocked to one side, a crisp, take-charge attitude and biting one-liners — “Don’t get stuck on stupid!” he snapped at reporters — he impressed politicians and ordinary folks alike.

The media still is stuck on stupid, which is why most of the country thinks the real problem was a natural disaster instead of the Corps of Engineers.

Other notable Katrina humor: the dog walker, the Chocolateville song, and the blue roof Christmas village ranked right up there, as did the guy with the big dog, ugly woman, shotgun and claw hammer.

Added: Michelle Malkin takes note of the General’s retirement (and very kindly linked to PH.)  She writes, “I wish we had more like him in Washington.”  From your lips to God’s ear.