Petraeus

What a great, tragic name.  I guessed it was Greek but in fact his father was “Sixtus Petraeus, a sea captain from Franeker, Netherlands.”

Two stories, first from Wikipedia:

Upon promotion to lieutenant colonel, Petraeus moved … to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where he commanded the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)’s 3rd Battalion 187th Infantry Regiment, known as the “Iron Rakkasans”, from 1991–1993. During this period, he suffered one of the more dramatic incidents in his career; in 1991 he was accidentally shot in the chest with an M-16assault rifle during a live-fire exercise when a soldier tripped and his rifle discharged. He was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center,Nashville, Tennessee, where he was operated on by future U.S. SenatorBill Frist. The hospital released him early after he did fifty push-ups without resting, just a few days after the accident.

The other one I heard Rick Atkinson tell on NPR: Apparently Petraeus got into a joking interaction with a private on a dock in Kuwait City in 1991.  Petraeus challenged the soldier to a push-up contrast.  The private tapped out at 27.  Petraeus did 20 more, and then told the private he could write that off on his tax returns, because it was an education.