/sigh! Not to derail, but your comment is the perfect example of why we need to be forever suspicious of the media and its motives.
"Sir Trips-a-lot". Is a media myth. Largely perpetuated by the media, particularly Saturday Night Live, to demean and poison public opinion of an elected official they did not like. The real Gerald Ford was our most Athletic President of the 20th Century. Maybe Teddy Roosevelt might give him competition. Ford was an athlete. A top tier football player. During WW2 he got swept iff the Carrier USS Monterey during Typhoon Cobra. He managed to snag the safety net with one hand, and haul himself back onto the deck in the middle of the worst category 5 storm ever seen. And then he ran below deck to lead a firefighting team, because the ship was on fire. Ford was many things, good and bad. But the one thing he wasn't in reality was clumsy. Thats purely a media fiction.
Hmmm....Interesting we need to be suspicious of all media twisting things. Your comment for example, you've taken some liberties there. Now you've presented Ford in an interesting light.
Gerald R. Ford was on watch from midnight to 4:00 a.m. Just before dawn General Quarters sounded. On his way to the bridge the ship rolled and Ford was almost swept overboard, but he caught his footing on a steel ridge around the edge of the flight deck and swung himself onto the catwalk below. Not exactly what you wrote, was it? You kind of made it dramatic...almost heroic.
He didn't lead a firefighting team either.
He was ordered by Captain Ingersoll to assess the fire raging on the hangar deck. He went down, observed the fire was being fought effectively by the damage control crews, and went back to report. On his way back up the heaving decks and stairways slick with rain, he slipped and nearly went overboard. He managed to stay abroad and report back to the captain that the fire was under control. There were LOTS of fire fighting teams on the ship in operation.
Much has been said about Ford’s contribution to save his ship. There are reports of his heroism, and he has, by his own admission, occasionally been given more credit than he deserves. At the reunion gathering in 1975, he had only this to say:
"Then, of course, the climax was the typhoon on December 18 and 19 of 1944. I can recall most intimately the coolness, the courage of the skipper. I happened to be on the bridge as the officer of the deck during general quarters, and we were in general quarters a long time."
Ford was where he was because of simple chance. He undoubtedly performed the task he had been ordered to do admirably, but to suggest he had fought the fires himself is stretching the truth a bit.
In reality, navy ships had dedicated damage control teams spread throughout the ship to fight fires, pump water, and other things. These were ably commanded by other officers and sprang into action the moment they were needed. Several present-day articles have embellished the story a bit. The officer of the deck is a stand-in for the captain, and in times of crisis (like battles or storms) the officer can be ordered to supervise operations of a certain part of the ship or to report on damage, as Ford did, among other things.
So when speaking of media liberties with lies, sure, they shouldn't, but you yourself are prone to embellishing like everyone else.