Obama surprises outgoing Gates with top honor

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Thursday honored outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates' four decades of service, including the past 4 and a half years in charge of the Pentagon, by surprising him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is the highest U.S. honor a president can give a civilian.

"I can think of no better way to express the gratitude of the nation to Bob Gates than with a very special recognition," Obama said as he asked Gates to step forward to receive the award.

An emotional Gates quipped that he "should have known the president was getting pretty good at this covert ops stuff," an apparent reference to last month's secret raid in Pakistan that killed terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

Gates said his tenure as defense secretary, a period in which he oversaw the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and recent U.S. military involvement in Libya, "has been the greatest honor and privilege of my life and for that I will always be grateful."

He thanked the two presidents he served in the post — Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Obama.

Gates' last day is Thursday.

At an outdoor ceremony at the Pentagon marking his retirement, Obama called Gates a humble American patriot, a man of common sense and decency, and one of the nation's finest public servants. Obama also said he considers Gates a friend.

Gates became defense secretary in December 2006 under Bush. He is being replaced by outgoing CIA Director Leon Panetta.

Meanwhile, the Senate plans to vote Thursday on Obama's nomination of Army Gen. David Petraeus to become CIA director. The roll call is expected to result in his easy confirmation.

Petraeus, 58, one of the military's highest profile commanders, has been in charge of U.S.-led international forces in Afghanistan and is a 37-year Army veteran. The general also is credited with turning around the war in Iraq, from which U.S. troops have been withdrawing in large numbers.

During his stints in Iraq and Afghanistan, Petraeus has been known as a prodigious consumer of intelligence produced by the agency he will next lead.

Petraeus became well-known after then-President George W. Bush sent him to Iraq in 2007 to direct the administration's surge of troops into that country.