@ Chiefttp : many thanks for your explanation and confirmation this is not the norm in airports in the US . I have limited experience flying in busy airports in the US, but flying myself VFR into the country and into regional airports,over the years I've seen some weird things being done or being asked to do by ATC. , things like asked to use the parallell taxi way for landing while the main is occupied , or maintain 500ft on finals until the threshold to allow helicopters to cross below the approach path at 200ft.
.So basically asking a 737 for an immediate take off in front of a 767 3 NM out did not really sound to me as something odd in the US , and I believe that had the SW done a rolling take off this would have been a non-event. Doing so in CAT III without a ground radar to verify the distances is however a very different ball game . There we agree.and hence my inittial question : was this a normal deviation from the norm ?