Great stories.
Thanks.
I have a few good stories about George Patton III. He was a little short on filling his dads shoes, but he tried and IMHO did a fairly decent job.
I was an instructor in the Armor School in 1972 when he was the Assistant Commandant as a BG. One day I was teaching a class on adjusting the throttle, shift and steering linkage on an M110 howitzer. The students were all setting on the front slope of the howitzer and I was on the ground facing them. Suddenly I noticed them staring at something behind me. I turned around and there was Patton, standing about two feet behind me. Before I could say anything, he told me something like "Good job sergeant, that's what I like to hear, good instruction with no BS going on. Carry on" and was gone. He was good at just popping in and out at will.
Another story - this was the draw down from Vietnam and most of the soldiers were going to Germany. He made another unannounced visit one day to one of our classes, asking them if they had any beefs with the Army. "None of that FTA BS, but real beefs." One private raised his hand and was recognized. He told Patton he wanted to go to Vietnam, but had orders for Germany. Patton turned to our senior instructor and told him to get the man's name. Two days later the soldier had orders revoking Germany and sending him to Vietnam.