Tale of a Badass, a story told to me by a billionaire (with pics) (741 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.73 on 12 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Mario (View user info) at 2005-05-09 10:50:32 EDT
This last Saturday, I had an opportunity to meet the famous Texan Ross Perot. He ran for President against Clinton as some of you may remember. Meeting this man, you would never guess that he's a billionaire or holds the kind of power that he does. What I mean by that is that he's very down to Earth and easy to talk to, he's like a grandfather telling his stories on a porch. Big difference, however, is that Ross Perot's stories are absolutely crazy. I heard quite a few of them as I was sitting next to him at a dinner, here's one of them.
During the Vietnam War, there was a man called Colonel Simon...now I don't know if he made the rank of colonel after the war or he was one during...but I'm going to assume he was a Captain then. Anyway, the North Vietnamese had hold of a position overlooking a major supply and transportation route. Simon went in there with a team of about 15 men, all members of the special ops community.
The Vietnamese position was atop a hill, with a cliff on one side dropping off about 100 feet and a sharp slope on the other side, leading into a dense, humid, mosquito ridden jungle. Simon and his men deployed to this area in a rubber raft and stowed it in the jungle. For 6 weeks they waited, Simon's men growning more and more restless as the days went by. They ate bananas for the entire time, and I'm told all of them now refuse to eat bananas to this day. Simon was waiting for his opportune moment to act, slowly biding his time.
In his observations of the area, he noticed there was a guard tower and then a long barracks filled with 15 men who would sleep at night. One of them men, the 16th one, would stay up all night on guard. He always looked down the hill toward the jungle, but never over the edge of the cliff. Finally, after weeks of doing nothing, opportunity struck. Heavy monsoon-like rains came in and Simon saw his chance. He went to the base of the cliff with nothing but his hunting knife. He climbed the cliff in the dark and the pouring rain. Once he reached the top, he silently made his way to the guard tower. Minutes later, the guard was dead, having nearly been decapitated by his knife. Simon took his automatic rifle and entered the barracks slowly, deliberately. He then killed all 15 men in there while they slept.
When asked later why he shot men in their sleep, he said "when you catch the enemy sleeping, you don't wake 'em up and ask if they wanna fight". He did all this single-handedly while his men waited at the bottom of the hill in the jungle, waiting for his signal. Apparently, the guard position was of significant value opertaionally, and Colonel Simon took it all by himself.
I was told many other stories that are incredible, but this post is getting long and I'll post them later if this is well received. Here are a couple of photos with Ross Perot and his lovely wife, Margot. Both of them were very easy to talk to and very sharp, it was a good time.
User Reviews
Submitted by pushedbyboredom (user info) at 2005-05-09 17:56:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Pretty cool
Submitted by Dash (user info) at 2005-05-09 17:31:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Awesome story.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-05-09 15:48:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
good stuff
Submitted by Mr.Brightside (user info) at 2005-05-09 13:44:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
He owns EDS systems which is located in my home town in Texas. The guy actually has his own private "militia" I guess you could call it, and he actually had these men working on operations in the mideast to rescue some of his personnel that had been taken captive over there. The government wouldnt intervene, so his "army" did it themselves. Its all in the book "On Wings of Eagles", its a good read. Good story Mario.
Submitted by badassmofo (user info) at 2005-05-09 11:48:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I always liked Perot's idea of how to run the country.
I would have voted for him, he wanted to run America like a business a business with a kickass military. That would have been great.
Submitted by Santa_Claus_ (user info) at 2005-05-09 11:44:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
http://bash.org/?17258
Submitted by Mario (user info) at 2005-05-09 11:39:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by zakalwe (user info) at 2005-05-09 11:35:52 (#)
Ranking: 2
How do you meet a billionaire?
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Being at the right place, at the right time...or as I like to call it, luck.
Submitted by zakalwe (user info) at 2005-05-09 11:35:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
How do you meet a billionaire?
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2005-05-09 11:04:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Isn't this the same guy who claimed that the North Vietnam hired Black Panthers to assassinate him? Yea, maybe he tells a good story but you may want independent verification before you believe it.
Submitted by knucklesnelson (user info) at 2005-05-09 11:01:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I did'nt know he was still alive
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2005-05-09 10:59:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
That's pretty cool.
Submitted by funk_boy (user info) at 2005-05-09 10:58:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
So many amazing stories. Mostly horrific.