(FORTUNE Magazine) – Old salts don't die, they just end up making things shipshape somewhere else. Consider Bill Norman, 50, executive vice president and second-in-command at Amtrak. As a career officer in the Navy -- three tours in Vietnam -- Norman fought to gain fair treatment for minority sailors, eventually becoming assistant for minority affairs to the chief of naval operations, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, who helped him push through reforms. Says Norman: ''The Navy has changed its ways significantly. Not as much as I'd like, but I have high standards.'' Indeed. When Norman started at Amtrak in 1979 in the marketing department, the railroad needed discipline. Under Norman's guidance, the railroad's operations have shaped up. Amtrak's subsidy from the federal government has shrunk from 52% of the 1979 operating budget to 35% of the 1987 budget. To much fanfare, Amtrak recently reopened Washington's Union Station after a $150 million renovation. Credit the Navy, says Norman: ''My basic sensitivity to people was reinforced in the Navy, and that makes me want to make this railroad sensitive to what passengers need.'' Yes, sir.