Thursday, September 1, 2011

After Leading Two Wars, Petraeus Retires From Army

Listen to the NPR story.

The most famous man in the U.S. Army left the military on Wednesday.

Gen. David Petraeus retired from the Army after 37 years in uniform. A couple of hundred people gathered on a sun-splashed day at Fort Myer, Va., just across the Potomac River from Washington, to pay tribute to the general. And like most of his career, the ceremony was well-scripted.


A half-hour before the ceremony started, a man about Petraeus' height and build — with a chest full of medals and ribbons — walked to the podium and tapped the microphone. From the place where the journalists were gathered, the officer's identify wasn't clear.

I whispered to my colleagues in the press corps, "Is that Gen. Petraeus?"

"Couldn't be," they responded. "Four-star generals don't do their own mic checks."

READ THE FULL STORY ON NPR.COM

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