@Silver420Surfer, yes, Ross Perot was a patriot. And a good, admirable man. (I voted for him.)
(Compilation from from CNN, LA Times, USAToday, Dallas News, Wiki.) * & this is only a fraction of his history: who he was & what he accomplished. You should google & read the referenced articles & more.
Perot graduated from Annapolis, 454th out of 925 cadets, in 1953. He served four years in the Navy
In 1969, his efforts to deliver goods to US prisoners of war held in North Vietnam brought the treatment of POWs into the spotlight. POWs later claimed that the publicity ultimately resulted in better treatment by the North Vietnamese.
Perot arranged an event for 98 children of POWs and MIAs returning with their mothers to John F. Kennedy International Airport. They'd gone to Paris at Perot's expense for a one-day trip to picket the North Vietnamese Embassy in the hopes of drawing public rebuke for mistreatment of their loved ones.
1974 - Awarded the Medal for Distinguished Public Service by the Department of Defense for his efforts on behalf of prisoners of war.
1979 - He also won fame for financing a rescue operation of 2 workers for his company Electronic Data Systems who had been taken captive in Iran on the eve of the 1979 revolution.
Perot assembled the commando team of seven EDS employee volunteers, trained and led by Arthur "Bull" Simons, that freed Paul Chiapparone and Bill Gaylord from Tehran's Qasr Prison.
Perot personally oversaw the mission, flying to Tehran during the planning phase and greeting the rescued employees and raiders when they arrived in Istanbul.
That daring rescue became the basis for Ken Follett's 1983 nonfiction thriller,
On Wings of Eagles. NBC later made a TV miniseries about the mission.
1983 - Texas Governor Mark White recruits Perot to lead a statewide commission on education reform.
Perot was the driving force behind Texas' landmark schools package passed by the Legislature in the summer of 1984. It included the no-pass, no-play rule, a 22-pupil limit in elementary schools, prekindergarten classes for disadvantaged children and high school graduation tests that still shape education in Texas today.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/tex...nd-no-pass-no-playto-complete-school-overhaul
February 1986 - Perot received the Winston Churchill Award for epitomizing the spirit of Britain's most famous statesman. He was only the third American to receive the coveted medallion, honored for his efforts on behalf of American POWs in Vietnam in the 1960s and for organizing a strike team that rescued two of his EDS employees from an Iranian prison in 1979. Prince Charles and first lady Nancy Reagan came to Dallas to bestow the Churchill medal.
In 1986, Perot received the S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, an award given out annually by
Jefferson Awards.
November 3, 1992 - Receives one of the largest percentages ever for an independent candidate in a presidential election (18.9%), but comes in behind Bill Clinton and incumbent President George H.W. Bush.
On April 22, 2009, Ross Perot was made an honorary
Green Beret at the
John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at
Fort Bragg,
North Carolina.
In May 2009, he was appointed an honorary chairman of the OSS Society.
On October 15, 2009, the
United States Military Academy at
West Point awarded him with the distinguished
Sylvanus Thayer Award.
On October 2, 2010, Perot was given the
William J. Donovan Award from the OSS Society at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C. He is the 26th recipient of the award.
In September 2011, Perot accepted the
Army Heritage Center Foundation's Boots on the Ground Award.
Ross personally paid to cover the care of indigent or uninsured sick, injured veterans, armed forces members and others, his gifts to Children's Medical Center for work done there by UT Southwestern faculty members and the funds given to Zale Lipshy when it was an independent hospital, and his total contributions to the medical center would surpass well over $100 million."
Perot spent much of his later years focused on making sure U.S. troops received the best medical treatment.
Shortly after the Gulf War ended in 1991, Perot became concerned about the large number of veterans returning from the battlefield with strange neurological symptoms. He donated $2.5 million to seed Dr. Robert Haley's research at UT Southwestern.
In October 2000, Perot joined forces with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to land $5 million in a defense spending to further fund Haley's landmark studies, which led to compelling evidence that the chemical toxin-induced Gulf War syndrome was real.
Orson Swindle, who shared a cell with Sen. John McCain in North Vietnam, said Perot was
"one of the most truly patriotic Americans" he'd ever met. "His affinity for veterans and people who serve the country was beyond description.
