Admiral Robert Kramek Oral History Is Available
The Naval Institute has just released the oral history of Admiral Robert E. Kramek, 20th Commandant of the Coast Guard and 40-year Institute member, in which he discusses his career and life to date. In the following excerpt, Admiral Kramek recalls an event when he was captain and the commanding officer of the Support Center at Governors Island, New York, in the mid-1980s:
At the end of my time at Governors Island, I got a very exciting curve ball—the centennial of the Statue of Liberty in 1986. Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca had been appointed by President Reagan in 1982 to raise public funds to renovate the statue. We were approached by Hollywood producer David Wolper, who was in charge of orchestrating a big centennial extravaganza. They’d looked at all the sites and now wanted to have it on Governors Island, overlooking the statue. Lee was going to rent the Queen Elizabeth 2 and park it right in front. And we were going to have an “Operation Sail” parade of tall ships. And there were going to be 7 million people watching the event in New York—it was to be telecast on ABC. And there were going to be 40,000 vessels in the harbor. Admiral Paul Yost, who was Commander, Atlantic Area, said, “You’re in charge of that.”
There was no way this thing was going to work out. All of a sudden Frank Sinatra was coming. So was Elizabeth Taylor. And President Reagan was going to land in a helicopter. And there would be seven Marine Corps helicopters with him. And in the meantime, he was going to hold a bilateral treaty conference with President Francois Mitterrand of France. And on and on and on.
There was a knock at the door—someone from Lee Iacocca’s advance team, saying, “Well, you know, ABC’s Good Morning America is going to be here, and the Today show, and the CBS Morning News. They’re all setting up booths—3,000 journalists in all.” You can only sustain 5,000 people with the toilets and water fountains on this island. It’s a historical landmark. Well, we ended up with 35,000 people.
Iacocca’s team said, “We’ve got a deal for you.”
I said, “I don’t do deals, but what’s the deal?”
“We’re going to give you and your staff new Chryslers for the rest of your life here on this island—staff cars.”
“And what’s the quid pro quo?”
“Well, uh, Lee needs a chauffeur-driven vehicle to take him from this show to that show. And his mother needs to be put up in your VIP quarters because she’s 82 years old and doesn’t want to stay on the QE2. And, by the way, he’s the one raising the money for all this.”
I said, “No deal, but here’s what I can do. I’ll provide him transportation. He used to work for Ford. I have an old ’79 Mercury Marquis. My wife will drive him wherever he wants to go. It’s my personal car. His mother can stay at my house.”
“And what do you want in return?”
“He can sign my [copy of his] book, Iacocca. I bought it a couple of months ago.”
“That’s all you want?”
“That’s all I want. Sign my book.”
We planned out everything—but some things really couldn’t be helped. Frank Sinatra was a pain in the ass—he got drunk—and Elizabeth Taylor got lost. But they performed magnificently in a huge stadium that was built overlooking the Statue of Liberty. The fireworks, shot from the top of Castle Williams, were the most impressive I’ve ever seen in my life.
The New Yorkers themselves are what really made it work. It was an unusual event. They were all wearing Statue of Liberty hats and walking around singing God Bless America. Not one of the 40,000 boats bumped into each other. It was a great American patriotic event—and everything worked as it should.
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