Replies

You don't need to give contemporary US commanders the back hand in order to praise Patton.

But there is a big difference in military climate. Patton could spend most of his career on the tactical and strategic arts, from becoming a master fencer and excellent pistol and rifle man on up to the tactical and strategic operations of armored regiments. Todays military officer, however, smart, must spend most of his life burdened with administrative chores, and if he plays hooky from his bureaucratic jobs to enhance his military arts, will suffer promotion wise.

Too true. Of course, Patton paid a huge price for his commitment to winning on the battlefield. Remember that much of the movie Patton, was based on Omar Bradley's memoir, A Soldier's Story. Bradley, Montgomery and Eisenhower all resented Patton, because he was (a) the most successful battlefield general, and (b) most people knew it. This jealousy was increased after the war, when the Allies discovered many of the German internal strategic memos. The basic thrust of them was that they didn't give a d@mn what Bradley and Montgomery were doing, but they were scared to death of Patton.

That's not to say that Patton wasn't an egocentric person. However, Bradley, in the movie, comes across as the gentle guiding hand that looked after Patton, who was supposedly nuts. Patton knew more about the battlefield than the rest of them put together.

One line in the movie was true. When Patton said, "I'm one of the people who believe we can still lose this war." Today, there's the assumption that we can win no matter how much stupidity is dumped onto the troops. We CAN lose, and I fear we may have to take catastrophic loses before the political correctness comes off.

Patton could spend most of his career on the tactical and strategic arts, from becoming a master fencer and excellent pistol and rifle man on up to the tactical and strategic operations of armored regiments. Todays military officer, however, smart, must spend most of his life burdened with administrative chores

Patton spent most of the time between 1916 and 1940 creating the US Army's armored cavalry capability.

He spent long hours preparing presentations to brass and to Congressional committees on the need for appropriations for armor.

He spent years going through prototype after prototype of different kinds of armor, of dealing with various arms manufacturers and their contracts. He set up a school for training in armor and dealt with all the red tape which that inevitably involved.

Make no mistake: George Patton was a dogged and accomplished bureaucrat.

The fact that he once took a summer off to study fencing in France and spent a couple of years teaching saber fighting between fighting Villa and the beginning of WWI doesn't really compare to the almost-quarter century he spent in and around the Beltway advocating for and building US armor capacity practically from scratch.

And despite all those years on committees and boards and task forces, he almost ruined his brilliant WWII exploits due to logistical blunders.