Michael Giorgione
Autore di Inside Camp David: The Private World of the Presidential Retreat
Sull'Autore
Rear Admiral Michael Giorgione, CEC, USN (RET.), served twenty-nine years on active duty in the United States Navy. He was the commander of Camp David, serving President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush. In this capacity, he also worked under the White House Military Office along with the mostra altro Milaides, and with those in command of Air Force One, Marine One, and other White House Military Office units. mostra meno
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This is a very refreshing work. With all the "inside" stories about the White House where trusted subordinates "tell-all," this work is clear case of hero-worship. The hero is, of course, the President (from FDR through Mr. Obama, and their wives) who have been hard-working but who find Camp David to be rejuvenating. And the author sticks to the rejuvenating aspect. He seems to have contacted many of the prior CO's of Camp David to assemble a whole series of anecdotes, funny happenings, and high-level diplomatic maneuvering.… (altro)
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Giorgione makes an inaccessible place accessible. And he gives glimpses of - from personal experience, through interviews of other COs, and from some archival accounts - the reason for the Camp: the presidents. I appreciated learning things about them that might otherwise get skipped over in biographies. But then Camp David is unique space. “Unlike at the White House, where every moment is observed and recorded, at the camp, it is possible to close the door and draw the curtains, shutting out the nation for a precious brief time. Presidents can breathe here.” And Giorgione lets us see small pieces of that breathing. History, the job, living there, the presidents and their families and their stays, holidays, the historic summits, the serenity and the loneliness...the sharing of personal stories, such as when Chelsea Clinton gave two stuffed animals that she had with her for the eight years to Giorgione to give to his daughters. This is a great story about the White House in the woods, and Giorgione tells it well.
Some notes and observations:
There are always firsts and in the military, it unfortunately usually involves the modifier “female”. Camp David had its own with CDR Wendy Halsey. In talking about the “edginess” that particular command involved, more so even than “normal” command, Giorgione says “It wasn't just me.”During my career (1984-2004), the military saw its first women on combatant ships, piloting warplanes, and on the front lines of battle and I always cringed when I saw, read, heard “female” or “woman” as an adjective I viewed unnecessary. I felt for the objects - forgive my editorial, but it does convey my evaluation of the issue - of the modifiers/qualifiers.
I believe this also. Big time. But some people want to think they're the smartest person in the room and that's just poor leadership.
Well... that's funny!
Humility: On the summit between Israel and the PLO brokered by President Clinton, Clinton was to leave in the middle to attend the G8 in Japan, and the author, waiting five hours for a Clinton’s departure from the Camp (the Commanders attended every arrival and departure), got an apology from an unlikely source, Chelsea, who said “I’m so sorry, Commander, my father’s running late.” To which he replied (he said “amused”), “No problem,” because he knew the tensions, if not the details of the negotiations underway:
And not just Clinton... Intuitive, but sometimes I need to see things like that written so that I can consciously recall it from my mental toolbox.
The Camp afforded the necessary escape from the “jail” (Truman called it that) of the White House, and Giorgione recounted the good times the different First families had on holidays and breaks, some more than the others )Reagan set a record 186 visits that will likely not be broken), some quite a bit less (not covered in the book, the most recent former president only visited the camp 15 times). Giorgione has a chapter - “The Lonely Sentry” - on the loneliness of the job ... of the presidency, and the Camp Commander. Truman may have felt jailed in the White House, but he was also one of only two who didn’t take to Camp David.
Giorgione noted another CO’s leadership “challenges”, or “opportunities”, immediately following the events of September 11, 2001, when Vice President Cheney was flown to Camp David (now known, but not at the time, to be his secure location)... CO O’Connor was confused that he was to put Cheney in “Aspen”, the president’s Camp residence, and was told that the president said to put him there. When the Bushes arrived four days later, Bush “barked, ‘Who’s been sleeping in my bed?’”. It turned out that Cheney’s people misled the CO. After thatI learned that same lesson long ago, experiencing other people’s agendas. Sometimes simple but still problematic, they required me to, as Giorgione writes, “learn to ignore, work around, or filter some of the things they instructed me to do.” I also adopted the verify approach... as long as the upper leadership was accessible - some aren’t/weren’t- I’d confirm so-and-so said, to the usual surprise of the persons telling me such.
“At Camp David, the profound and the mundane occur on a daily basis. Every single thing that happens has tremendous significance. […] Assigned to Camp David, we all [the crew] find it’s nothing like anything we’ve experienced in our military careers.” I added a phrase to my “toolbox” some 14 years ago: “It’s never boring.” Meaning, sometimes, that mundane to us may be the most important thing to someone else.
Giorgione says of the end of his two year tourHe and his wife were fortunate to meet the Bushes twice again and the second time, in 2005, he said he was “struck by how the presidency had aged him since our time at Camp David - before 9/11...” And CDR Bob Reuning, four COs later, was there for Bush 43’s final Camp stay. After one last “challenging bike ride” (for which Bush was famous, and always outdid everyone else), Bob cleaned off the mud, changed into his dress uniform and at the final walk to Marine One, Bush “gave Reuning a big bear hug and said, ‘You’re a good man, Bob.’”
Giorgione lists all of the Camp David Commanders at the end of his book and I knew three of them, one who I worked with directly for a couple of years. (It was Bob Reuning... Pretty cool.) Oh yeah, “Camp David” is named after Ike’s grandson, but it’s real name is Naval Support Facility Thurmont.
Jumping off point for me:
I need to find Inside Marine One: Four U.S. Presidents, One Proud Marine, and the World’s Most Amazing Helicopter by Ray L’Heureux
And two notes for the publisher:
1) Personal, but I say it when I see it; I despise post notes that are not cited in the text, rather at the end of the book with a page number and sentence fragment. I do reread books I like but I do not like to reread to see where notes reference. It is a simple... simple... and small, overlookable_if_you_don’t_like_them, effort to superscript a small font numeral to indicate that something is sourced. But that’s a personal peeve and I’m not changing the world with my rant
2) And something more important that I’d not seen before because I haven’t read a large print book so had no idea: those after notes are rendered even more totally useless because they reference the “normal” print hardcover pages! Come on, publisher!… (altro)