Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-07-17
Patton Ideal
General for
Combat Duty
ExempIifies QuaIitie S
Needed in Leader
BY HUGH, :. JOHNSON

staff attempt 10 get virility pep
and drive into the army's top
side command.
II is written with some reluct-
ance because, by taking a par
ticular example that / happen to
know about. l don't mean to
make any invidious comparisons
with many officers that l do
know about, whose equally ex-
cellent talents are slightly differ
ent, or others that l don't know
about at all.
But | want 10 say a word, and
it's not going to be all boosting,
about a single man who. with
whatever faults he has. is my
idea OF an example of combat
commander.
MAJ. GEN. GEORGE s. PAT
AA TON, commanding the ar
mored corps, when / first knew
him, was special aid TO Cen
eral Pcrshlng in the Mexican
punitive expedition or the day
Joined General PershingS staff
at Namaquipa, deep in Mexico.
The general assigned me as
Patton's terminate. He wasn't
there Presently he came in
and. after self-introductions.
took off his O. d. shirt. II was
full of dry adobe-mud-on the
inside.
He had been backed up against
the wall OF a Mexican hacienda
by one Of Villas chief lieuten-
ants. As I remember, his name
was Candelario Cervantes. Pat
ton, by one of the clevereSt
stunts in the whole campaign
an unexpected automobile raid
with handful of men - had
cornered this band of bribones
in a big Quartet Of adobe walls.
Patton got them all in approved
movie fashion and. mostly. with
his own "SiX-gunS" 49, he never
used an automatic.
WE USED 10 call him the
w "Siegel-Cooper Cowboy be-
cause he wore two such guns
and used 10 practice with them
at every spare moment. The
reason for the adobe in the shirt
was that, after the helter-skel-
ter rush al him by the Mexicans,
firing WincheSterS. mounted and
from the hip, he had killed most
OF them but his guns were
empty. CervanteS, seeing this,
tried 10 pepper him while he
was against the wall fumbling
10 reload. Patton succeeded in
that effort. The Mexican started
his horse toward the horizon.
Some old scout lore had told
George never 10 shoot al a
fleeing man - his horse would
carry him sway - but al the
stiffle joint of his mount. This
Lieutenant Patton did. r h Q
horse dropped per formula Ger
vanteS came in with the rest
dashed TO a hood Of a Dodge
automobile, his blank eyes star
ing al the sky
This career is so fctional in
form. ] hesitate 10 write IT,.
General Patton came TO West
Point -- an exceptional physical
figure of A man from George
Marshall'S school V. NJ. |. He
was saturated in military his
tory He could write jingleS with
the facility Of Bobbie Burns and
his spelling was worse than
George Washington's.
For. the later and other rea-
sons il took him five years lin
stead Of FOUR 10 get through
the military academy but he in
sisted, from the moment he en-
tered TO the hooked and
indignant Amusement of upper
claSSmen, especially considering
his scholastic faults. that he was
going 10 be adjutant.
That is the second most COW
cted military honor at West
Point but upper-class indignation
meant nothing TO him. He wound
up in just that job.
IS AN officer. he got the
"A quaint medieval idea that a
cavalry soldier. should be a con-
Stantly trained athlete. an ex-
pert sword : m an, horseman,
swimmer piStoleer and rifle
shot. He became all those
things in superlative degree so
excellently that. when the gov
eminent wouldn't finance send
ing the American officer to
compete i'm these skills in the
modern pentathlon in the Olym-
pic games at Stockholm, he
financed himself and would have
won the event, except for the
peculiar Swedish rules on cross
country riding.
He won all the other contests
against the best in the world
lie invented and had adopted a
new cavalry saber. He was an
aide TO Generals Leonard Wood
and Theodore Roosevelt. He be-
came aide TO General Pershing
in Mexico.
He commanded the tanks at
st. Mihiel and got thoroughly
perforated across the lower
belly by machine gun fire be-
cause the infantry escort failed
10 follow him and one trumpcter
L., ,rthnt tttrrnd out 10 he "a diS.