I was 24 back in 1991 when Desert Storm took place, and was amazed at the brilliance of this man, and the way he had 50,000 marines in the gulf, letting saddam think we were coming in by boat, and then we made a full out assault by land from saudi arabia.
Godspeed General, I remember I was in 2nd grade during Desert Shield/Storm and was completely enthralled by his press conferences. I still love his video showing the "luckiest guy in Iraq" where the car drives right through the crosshairs and his his rear view a couple laser bombs destroy the bridge.
At first I did not like him until he realized how to use SOF across the spectrum of combat.
It was my personal bias but now I think he knew and was just waiting for the right moments.