Opening paragraphs......................

      I had become president of Texas A & M University in August 2002, and by October 2006 I was well into my fifth year.  I was very happy there, and many - but not all - Aggies believed I was making significant improvements in nearly all aspects of the university (except football).  I had originally committed to staying five years but agreed to extend that to seven years - summer 2009.  Then my wife, Becky, and I would finally return to our home in the Pacific Northwest.
     The week of October 15, 2006, the week that would change my life, started out routinely with several meetings.  Then I took to the road, ending up in Des Moines, Iowa, where I was to give a speech on Friday, the twentieth.
     Just past one p. m. that day I received an e-mail from my secretary, Sandy Crawford, saying that President Bush's national security adviser, Steve Hadley, wanted to speak to me on the phone within  an hour or two.  Hadley's assistant was "quite insistent" that the message be passed to me.  It told Sandy to inform the assistant that I would return Steve's call on Saturday morning.  I had no idea why Steve was calling, but I had spent nearly nine years at the White House on the National Security Council (NSC) staff under four presidents, and I knew that the West Wing often demanded instant responses that were rarely necessary.
-Robert M. Gates,  Duty:  Memoirs of a Secretary At War