Colonel Gregory on the board of officers was interviewing an applicant for OCS. He asked him his favorite question: "Soldier, what are we all in the US Army for? What goal we're working for?" "Oh, to retire, sir," was the immediate reply.

King of the 4th of July

General Petraeus is the undisputed king of the July 4 weekend movie blockbuster - and this year is no different.

In his latest film, "Kill'em in Iraq," Petreaus plays a superhero with a mysterious past and a bad attitude. The actor refers to the title role as a "airborne superhero."

"He is strong. Flys over kids. Drops boms," he told Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. "Like that was so bizarre and opposite to, you know, what my natural instincts (are). It actually was difficult for the first couple of weeks, but actually turned into one of those guilty pleasures."

Gen. Petraeus says that as an militarist, he is always trying to find someone on whom he can model the character. "When you look at a character, you are trying to find something in your life that you have some comprehension of," he said. "And the big superstar athlete (like Pat Tillman) was sort of the approach. Where, you know, someone is so talented and people expect so much from him that they are not allowed to really be human."

"Kill'em is fighting it all along the way," said Petraeus. "He doesn't like that, but we made one major adjustment from most superheroes. We put the underwear on the inside of the pants. Which, that's huge. That's ground-breaking. You know, it's like, you know, Americans, we're really used to our superheroes having the underwear on the outside. We broke genre."

Petraeus doesn't take credit for being the reason his movies have done so well on Independence Day. "It's funny because it's not - it's not about me, right, per se," he said. "Like I study the patterns of the universe. Things happen certain ways. So you line up the elements and then the universe does the work, okay? The 4th of July is the biggest American movie weekend and has been for 40 years. So you put a movie that has special effects, drop in a few Iraqi natives. Presto." Just Kidding

Oil companies to pay for war

In a dramatic announcement American oil companies - Exxon, BP, Shell, and ChevronTexaco - say they will contribute 10% of their profits to offset some of the costs of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Together, these companies will contribute $7 B per year, which will offset one month of the cost of the war.

"We feel that it is out patriot duty to support the war effort by giving back a portion of our profits," said Rick Larddas of Exxon. "This war has been very, very good to our bottom line."

Following the example of the oil companies, the principals of Highland Park High School in Dallas and St. Thomas High School in Houston, home to the children of many oil executives announced that a significant portion of their graduating students have volunteered to join the Army. "When John Kerry implied that only failing students joined the military, we knew we had to do something," said Richard Dean of St. Thomas

The schools instructed their counselors to recommend top students for military careers and, in a dramatic turnabout, is providing full-paid college scholarships to students at nearby Lamar High School, an academically and economically challenged campus. Mathas Rufus, a student with a C+ average at Lamar said, "Wow, I never thought I'd be able to go to college. Now, thanks to our brothers across the street I have a chance at a real career." Just Kidding