Stand-up guy

I met Mr. McCraney back in '94 while deployed with the U.S. Army. He was touring with the USO, I believe.

Anyway, I had the oppurtunity to eat lunch with him, along with a few other soldiers from my brigade. When it came time to sit down and eat our MREs, (lunch-food of champions and the classy meal choice of celebrities), he noticed that someone had made seating assignments at the table placing several senior NCOs and officers around him.

He told the NCOIC at the dining hall to rearrange the nametags to place the lower-enlisteds around him, pushing the higher-ranking soldiers to the ends of the table. As a result, I ended up sitting across from him.

I'm not much of a "celebrity worshiper", but this guy gets an A-grade in my book. The seating assignment issue might have been staged for all I know, but his interest in our questions and down-to-earth attitude were nothing if not genuine.

At the time, Major Dad was his most recent project, so that is what everyone else wanted to talk to him about. I did my best to keep the conversation on Simon & Simon and we had a nice laugh about his much-abused Dodge Power Wagon from that show.

A real stand-up guy in my book.