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General News: General Petraeus Comes Home to Much Fanfare
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| A crowd, including members of the middle school band who would play for him, waited to enter the gymnasium where the ceremony was held. |
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| General Petraeus talked about the past and about the honor he felt on coming home. |
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| He spoke proudly of his wife, Holly, who was at his side. |
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| Orange County Executive Ed Diana unveils the new sign. |
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| Petraeus brought along his old varsity soccer jacket. |
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| Crowds surrounded the general after his speech, asking for his autograph. |
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| He greeted local leaders, including state senator Bill Larkin, |
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| and old friends, including Heather O'Dell. |
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| After the ceremony, Petraeus went to the public library, where he was greeted by his former teacher, Janet Dempsey. |
October 08, 2009
The crowd paced outside Cornwall Central Middle School on Thursday afternoon, awaiting the arrival of favored hometown son, General David Petraeus. He was nearly an hour late, a result of an earlier meeting at the White House with vice president Joseph Biden and the National Security Council, but all the local dignataries, friends, and children who lined up to greet him son forgave his tardiness and asked the four-star general about his health.
“It’s history,” General Petraeus said about his fight against prostate cancer last spring, which was only revealed on Tuesday, “it was over five months ago.” That’s when the 56-year-old Cornwall-on-Hudson native finished treatment for the disease.
On this beautiful fall day, General Petraeus returned to his hometown after a long absence for a ceremony to mark the dedication of a section of Quaker Avenue in his honor. The general, who is head of the U.S. Central Command, most recently led the U.S. military operation in Iraq, where he drew up the plan for a military surge that ultimately allowed the U.S. to hand military control over to the Iraqis.
His intelligence and abilities have prompted many to suggest that he would be an excellent future candidate for President, a position he refuses to contemplate with his characteristically humble approach. More than one local resident has noted that he is most famous Cornwall-on-Hudson resident of all time.
On a stage put up in the gymnasium of Cornwall Central Middle School, which he attended when it was still the high school, General Petraeus recognized old friends and coach McGinnis, who led him through countless matches of pit basketball. At one point, he pulled out his an old soccer jacket from 1969, the year his team won the state championship.
The general thanked his wife, Holly, who joined him on stage, for being a “superb” Army wife and mother, noting that their son will be deployed to Afghanistan early next year. “I wish my parents were still alive to hear your words,” General Petraeus noted after he was introduced, “My dear mother would have believed every one of them.”
Petraeus was being honored by Orange County officials, who voted last week to dedicate a portion of Quaker Avenue, from Route 32 to 9W, to him. Retiring county legislator Alan Seidman, a fellow student of Petraeus at Cornwall High School, led the effort and served as master of ceremonies for the event. After all the speeches and an unveiling of the new highway sign, Seidman closed by saying “He’s still David Petraeus. He may wear a few more stars, but he’s still our guy.”
Petraeus said he welcomed the new signs along the county road, noting that rival sports teams headed to a game at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point might take notice and shake a little in their boots. He also said that he hoped that when people read the sign they will also think of the hundreds of thousands of troops that serve under him who are performing “the most difficult of tasks.”
After the ceremony, many of the 300 people in the audience surrounded the general, hoping for a handshake, a photo or an autograph. From there, he headed over to Cornwall public library, where he met his old school teacher, Janet Dempsey, the town historian, and sat in a leather chair that had been donated in memory of his father, Sixtus, who died last year.
Later, he planned to join a group of former classmates who gathered for a private dinner with their old buddy and friend. On Friday, Petraeus was scheduled to open a football game at the U.S. Military Academy and to add his voice to the high-level talks in the nation’s capital where, he said, “we are very much working on tough issues that lie ahead in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
But for a few hours, General Petraeus got a chance to recall how it felt to be “Peaches” Petraeus again, the kid who sold homegrown vegetables from a wagon and ran like hell on the soccer field.
Click here to read a four-part interview with General Petraeus about growing up in Cornwall-on-Hudson in the early 1960s.
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