Obama surprises outgoing Gates with prestigious medal: ; US defense secretary ends more than 30 years of service to the nation

WASHINGTON - A visibly moved Defense Secretary Robert Gatespaused briefly at a Pentagon retirement ceremony rife with pomp andpageantry, collected himself and told his president: "You're gettingpretty good at this covert ops stuff."

Barack Obama, the eighth president Gates has served in more than30 years at the CIA and Department of Defense, had just presentedhim with the prestigious Medal of Freedom. And Gates was teasing hisboss about keeping the award a surprise, in a reference to how Obamahad kept the world in the dark about his plan to bring down al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

Proving that there are sometimes second acts in America, the …