(In the end, I'd say he overplayed it — remember "reporting for duty"? — and the emphasis left him more vulnerable to the infamous swift-boat smear).
Walking around my neighborhood, grateful to be unscathed, I think of 2004, and I remember reports of those tourists who walked in ignorance on Thai beaches, remarking to each other about how very strange it was that the tide had receded so far and so quickly, how very odd it was to see fish flopping on the strand.
I remember reports over the summer of his rapidly declining health.
Tesco, remember, reported a record £6.4bn loss shortly after he was sacked and is embroiled in a Serious Fraud Office investigation into its pricing.
He remembers reporting various issues over the years, including hygiene problems in outpatients at Westminster hospital, which were sorted within days.
This week in the magazine, Calvin Trillin remembers reporting on the Freedom Rides, a civil-rights campaign aimed at demonstrating the illegal segregation of interstate bus travel.
But as I looked at the painstakingly gathered relics on display, and the beaming pride on the face of Saudi ambassador, Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf Al Saud, as he entered the exhibition, I could not help but remember reports of the demolishing of the prophet Muhammad's home and his wife Khadija in 1984 to make way for a public toilet.
Many readers will remember reports, first carried in this newspaper, that a considerable volume of hydrocarbons released in the spill did not reach the surface of the gulf.
I remember horrible Nancy Grace reporting falsely that our neighborhood was under 14 feet of water when in fact ours was one of the only neighborhoods to remain dry.
"I remember seeing reports on the Beijing Games saying that the American swimmer Michael Phelps was having two dozen eggs for breakfast".
