Another Patton Story
#1

:o:lol::D

 

The second paragraph I wrote to a present day soldier that thought his efforts has been for nothing so I wanted to set him straight.

 

I was lucky enough to be the 1st. Sgt. of a great company during WW II and to serve under the famous(some would say infamous Gen. Patton) and I was lucky enough to survive the war and get back Stateside relatively safe and sane because I knew my job and I did my job. I'll leave it there.

 

Quote "I have the utmost respect for men like yourself who wore a uniform whenever and did their job as they were required whatever the time frame was. You did not reach an E-7 rank by sitting on your butt goofing off. I mentioned Gen. Patton above because I have excerpted a portion of the speech he made to the troops before D-Day. I would ask respectfully that you read it and NEVER lessen the importance of your service. If I'm preachy "Tops" tend to do that(LOL)". End Quote

 

Please excuse his language but that was exactly how he spoke.

 

Here's the excerpted quote from Gen. pattons famous speech to the troops:-

 

"Patton stopped and the crowd waited. He continued more quietly, "All of the real heroes are not storybook combat fighters, either. Every single man in this Army plays a vital role. Don't ever let up. Don't ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain. What if every truck driver suddenly decided that he didn't like the whine of those shells overhead, turned yellow, and jumped headlong into a ditch? The cowardly bastard could say, "Hell, they won't miss me, just one man in thousands". But, what if every man thought that way? Where in the hell would we be now? What would our country, our loved ones, our homes, even the world, be like? No, Goddamnit, Americans don't think like that. Every man does his job. Every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important in the vast scheme of this war. The ordnance men are needed to supply the guns and machinery of war to keep us rolling. The Quartermaster is needed to bring up food and clothes because where we are going there isn't a hell of a lot to steal. Every last man on K.P. has a job to do, even the one who heats our water to keep us from getting the 'G.I. Shits'."

 

Patton paused, took a deep breath, and continued, "Each man must not think only of himself, but also of his buddy fighting beside him. We don't want yellow cowards in this Army. They should be killed off like rats. If not, they will go home after this war and breed more cowards. The brave men will breed more brave men. Kill off the Goddamned cowards and we will have a nation of brave men. One of the bravest men that I ever saw was a fellow on top of a telegraph pole in the midst of a furious fire fight in Tunisia. I stopped and asked what the hell he was doing up there at a time like that. He answered, "Fixing the wire, Sir". I asked, "Isn't that a little unhealthy right about now?" He answered, "Yes Sir, but the Goddamned wire has to be fixed". I asked, "Don't those planes strafing the road bother you?" And he answered, "No, Sir, but you sure as hell do!" Now, there was a real man. A real soldier. There was a man who devoted all he had to his duty, no matter how seemingly insignificant his duty might appear at the time, no matter how great the odds. And you should have seen those trucks on the rode to Tunisia. Those drivers were magnificent. All day and all night they rolled over those son-of-a-*****ing roads, never stopping, never faltering from their course, with shells bursting all around them all of the time. We got through on good old American guts. Many of those men drove for over forty consecutive hours. These men weren't combat men, but they were soldiers with a job to do. They did it, and in one hell of a way they did it. They were part of a team. Without team effort, without them, the fight would have been lost. All of the links in the chain pulled together and the chain became unbreakable".

 

Sgtleo :pdt12:

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#2

Sgt. Leo,

I very much appreciate all that you have shared so far, but none perhaps as much as this particular story. Whatever anyone thinks about Patton, he had this part right! This is a theme that often concerns me today when I see some vets and their units who are being overshadowed by some of the more well known, and I know it can't make them feel very good. At the risk of redundancy I will say again...they (all you guys) are heroes to me, and always have been...combat or cook. Thanks for sharing this story and thank you for your service! I'm sure this had a positive impact on the young soldier you shared it with! :pdt34:

 

 

:woof: Jim

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#3

:direct::direct:

 

Jim:_

 

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

There is a member here j3rdID whose unit took Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" but for political and Public Relations the 101AB moved in after them and the 3rd was relocated down the mountain to other quarters.

 

Even in the Band of Brother movie and TV presentation they perpetuated this LIE because it played better in the news media etc. Stephen Ambrose included this LIE in his book and not enough people know that Gen. Eisenhower debunked the LIE and gave recognition to the 3rd ID in an official document he issued.

 

I lost a lot of respect for Ambrose because he took liberties with the material provided to him by a lot of the BTDTs and it has been said many times "That is not what I told Ambrose in our interview".

 

Sgtleo

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