WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (AFP) - Tom Ridge is another member of the Vietnam generation to enter US politics and get thrown into the war on terror after the September 11 attacks in 2001.
As the first head of the Department of Homeland Security, Ridge, 59, became the public face of administration efforts to warn the American public whenever the nationwide terrorist alert had to be raised.
Ridge fought in Vietnam, where he won the Bronze Star for bravery. One of his favourite expressions is borrowed from the US Army Corps of Engineers: "We do the difficult immediately. The impossible takes a little longer."
Turning 22 federal agencies with more than 170,000 employees and a 38 billion-dollar budget into a cohesive force to stave off another attack by Osama bin Laden, for the moment, remains in the unfinished category.
Ridge became the nation's first White House homeland security adviser in October 2001, leading a huge operation to rethink the way the United States defends its borders after the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington.
The Department of Homeland Security that he officially took charge of in January, 2003 was the fruit of the biggest US government reorganisation since the Defense Department was created in 1947.
The department brought together the separate activities of the Coast Guard, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Customs Service and other diverse agencies, as well as the new Transportation Security Administration that guards airports.
Many people have berated the colour coded terrorist alert system for spreading more panic than information.
Opposition Democrats accused him of using alerts for political purposes during this year's election campaign. Ridge's advocacy for duct tape in home anti-terrorist kits was widely lampooned on comedy shows.
It has been a tough job for Ridge, who is a friend of President George W. Bush but has reportedly long been seeking to return to private sector work.
Ridge grew up in the small town of Munhall in Pennsylvania and he refered to himself as "a man nobody knows, from a town where nobody's been."
His father did two jobs to get him through good local schools, and Ridge's big opportunity came with a law scholarship at Harvard University but he interrupted his studies to fight in Vietnam.
On finishing his studies, he went into law and was a prosecutor before turning to politics.
He was the first Vietnam veteran to enter the House of Representatives in 1982 where he stayed until becoming governor of Pennsylvania in 1994.
Ridge became a Bush-style "compassionate conservative" mixing charm and firm hand. He was never beaten in six elections in Congress and for the governor's post.
He was a strong supporter of capital punishment, which made him a target for anti-death penalty demonstrations.
Ridge's name was circulated as a potential vice-presidential candidate during Bush's 2000 election campaign. However, his chances faded as he was considered to moderate on issues such as abortion which Bush strongly opposes.
Bush called Ridge "a true patriot" when he named him to run the Department of Homeland Security.
11/30/2004 20:02 GMT - AFP