11 ACR and Gen Patton

[DMZ-LT]

Friend of mine , Guy Ballou , fought with the 11 Armored Cavalry Regiment , in Viet Nam , in 1968. Col George Patton , Jr. was the commander of the unit and yes he was the son of WWll General Patton. JR became a General also. I met him in Germany in early 70 and he was famed for swearing and acting like his old man. Guy called today and said Jr had died a few weeks ago and had a funeral but this Friday they are buring him at Arlington. Guy said he was the only General he ever met that was worth a $hit , said he had and would follow Patton to hell if Patton gave the order. Guy lives around DC and is going to the funeral to say good by. My Dad told me years ago there would come a time when friends and people I know would start to die. I think I have come to that time and I don't like it.

[SuperScout]

John,
Of all the gifts that you and I have received, immoratality ain't one of them, and while I'll not expedite the process of Final Lift-Off by stepping out in front of a Mack truck, I do realize my limitations! And your friend was correct: GEN Patton was a fine man, a great commander, and probably a better all-around man than his esteemed father. I met him at Ft. Hood on several occasions, and while he had the presence of a general officer, he wore his rank very easily. At Ft. Knox, we had some very intense mano-a-manos, he ever the gentleman, and a quite learned one at that.
Scouts Out!!
Brice

[Andy]

I have an older friend who was a Captain with Black Horse in '68, he has some great APC stories. Recall him saying something a bit odd. He said Patton Jr. always knew he would make General but also knew he'd never rise to the top of the company. Both due to his dad. Wonder if he would have gone higher if his last name was Smith?

So long General. LT, you still have me!!! And I have no intent of departing at the moment.

STAY HEALTHY,
Andy

[Keith_Hixson]

We had a gentleman who served with Patton, Sr in our church. He has since moved and he and his wife live with their children. However, he told me that everyone that served with George Senior was proud they served with one of the great generals. However, at times they hated him but in reality they loved him.
Funny how a son can turn out like his father.

Keith

[DMZ-LT]

One of my Dad's favorite sayings " Apple don't fall far from the tree ".I thought he was great and an asshole - I guess that's a good commander. If Guy would follow him to hell so would I . God bless us one and all. Scouts Out !!

[1CAVCCO15MED]

I met him at Ft. Campbell in 1966. He was a Major and FOD of the guard when I was on guard duty. By 1968 he was a Brigadier General out of Loch Ninh with the 1th ACR which was attached to the 1st Cav. They overran an NVA base camp somewhere between Loch Ninh and Cambodia. Unbeknownst to them they also overran a NVA Surgical Hospital. When cleaning up they found out what they had done. The NVA had ORs, X-ray and a large pharmacy. They sent the drugs to Charlie Company to be inventoried. Some of the drugs were from East Germany but the majority were from France. They even had a drug we coudn't get: coramine. It was related to aramine, a major drug in the treatment of shock. Coramine was better because it didn't involve broncoconstriction so much when treating shock. Of course it was from France. Another thing we saw was a brick, a kilo of opium. They used it for pain relief. It disappeared and we never found it again. We suspected the NCOs. After that hospital was overrun we were the closest US medical facility to there. They targeted us for months with rockets and mortars. One guy killed and several, including me, wounded. By the way, did I tell you I recently went to Nova Scotia? There was this Ft Anne there that was built by the French. On the ramparts was the flag of the French navy. It was a white flag, I kid you not. How convenient.

[DMZ-LT]

Talked to Tiny last night. He served with Patton and thought he was a prick ... but if he said charge Tiny would have charged

[revwardoc]

1CAV,

The French flag you saw probably was white, but if you looked closer you would see it had a white cross on it.

Go to http://xenophongroup.com/mcjoynt/regmts.htm, and you'll see what I mean.

Whenever my regiments changes clothes, from the homespun militia clothing of the 4th Middlesex Regiment to the Blanc Royale avec verde of Le 85eme Regiment de Saintonge, we are often chided for our colonel's flag being all white, as if we're surrendering. But it does have the large white cross, which dates back to the Crusades.

Just below the colonel's flag on that web site is my regiment's colors.

[1CAVCCO15MED]

Can't seem to get it to open.

[revwardoc]

1cav,

Try this: http://www.americanrevolution.org/histlinks.html then click on "French Regiments".