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November 21, 2006
The real Great Santini
Pat Conroy graduated from The Citadel in 1967, turning his years at the military academy into several best-selling books, but his most famous novel was The Great Santini (later made into a film starring Robert Duvall), based in part on Conroy's father.
Conroy returned to The Citadel to deliver a graduation address, and the whole thing is worth a read, but the part I liked best was how he described his dad, painting a vivid portrait of the man in a few paragraphs.
My father, 6’3, 230-pound Marine Corps fighter pilot, knuckles dragging along the ground when he walked. When he was dying, I interviewed Dad. I said, "Dad, tell me about what it was like in the war."
He told me about coming off the aircraft carrier Sicily in Korea. His was the first squadron that got there, and they said, "Keep the Koreans north of the Naktong River." So he dove down—the first plane the North Koreans had seen—he dove down toward the enemy. I said, "How did you do, Dad?"
He said, "I did pretty good, son." He said, "I had a good sign—they were running. It’s good when you see the enemy running. There was another good sign, son."
"What’s that, Dad?"
"They were on fire."
That was the man who dandled me on his knee when I was a young boy—the Great Santini. I once introduced my father when I was giving a talk like this, and I said, "My father decided to go in the Marine Corps when he found out that his IQ was the temperature of this room."
My father got up right behind me. He stared down at the audience and he said, "My God, it’s hot in here. . . it must be at least 165 degrees."
Check out the rest of his speech. If you've not blinked away a tear or two by the time you reach the end, you're a heartless bastid.
Posted by Mike Lief at November 21, 2006 10:06 PM
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Comments
Damn, I wish I could write like that. Excellent speech, very moving.
Posted by: jim at November 22, 2006 08:18 AM