Who is the most infamous person you've met?

[haele]

126. Dick Cheney - 1982, Gen. Colin Powell, 1991.

I met Cheney when he was a member of the House and came onboard to observe a demo shoot on the SM2 MKII using AEGIS. He treated his aide (who was horribly sea-sick) like shit the whole time. No time for weakness in his world.

I was in charge of the CIC equipment, had to endure four hours with him seated right behind me, smoking away and taking occasional swigs from his flask or barking for coffee or grunting in response to other house members. (This was back when there were ash-cans installed as part of the consoles or crew seats).

He ignored the crew, showed no interest in the program (the reason he was out there) or the rest of us, and showed very respect to the C.O., according to the wardroom gossip. Just seemed bored the entire time, was the first off the ship as soon as we docked - heading for the nearest golf course, from what we were told.

Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. We were all just tools to him.

On edit, I also ran across him at an Engineering Officers conference back in the early 1990's when he was a speaker; I think he was SecDef at the time, or he had just stepped down or something. His ego had grown exponentially in the eight to ten years since the previous time I had experianced him.

I met Gen. Colin Powell at a commissioning party for the USS Keresarge (his wife was the sponsor) that our reserve unit attended. He was very personable, and his wife Alma was a sweet woman.

Haele