Mostly known for his role in the Watergate burglary that lead to President Richard Nixon’s resignation, GG Liddy was a long time radio host who made a big impression. He was the last survivor of the ” Watergate Seven”. You can read about his life and times all over the internet with his recent passing.
Liddy did a radio show for years, if I didn’t know better it could have been a parody of modern politicians. He was a perfect mix of James Bond, Howard Stern, and John Wayne. G. Gordon was a regular on the famous TV series “Miami Vice”. Today I don’t think he’d fly past the political corrections or cancelling of culture.
At one point we lived in the same part of the country, both working in Fairfax, Virginia. His studio was a few blocks from my office building where I listened to his show regularly. Once, maybe twice I called into the show and got on air with G. Gordon. It was only a matter of time before we would meet on the world famous “Beltway”.
One sunny morning I was doing my computer installation route, stuck in stop and go traffic. Between the Beltway traffic I look over and make direct eye contact with nonother than G. Gordon Liddy, driving a mid 1990’s Chevy Z71 shortbed pickup truck, on his way to work.
For whatever reasons drove me at the moment(circa 2000), my inner crowd went wild: I waved, I honked, I hollered like total lunatic. I’m not sure if I expected Liddy to stop, pull over, and autograph my T-shirt or what? Either way, he made eye contact one more time, flipped me the bird and then took a hard right out of the 6 lane traffic. G. Gordon drove out onto the shoulder of the road and drove off around traffic going what must have been 90 mph. My jaw dropped and it was one of the coolest traffic-related celebrity encounters I’ve ever had.
I never saw the man again but he made an impact. Himself an Army veteran, and with a son who was a member of the Special Forces. he impressed on the listener what big deal military service was. He thanked every veteran, and really elevated the men and women of the armed forces as distinguished among us. Liddy also made it a point to thank the families of those who serve, and talked about the real life impact of being in a military family.
