Yes you are correct it was United States Army Materiel Development and Readiness Command (DARCOM)at the time. I have made a major effort to forget that stupid clumsy acronym. The command didn't become Army Material Command again until Gen Thompson took command in the summer of 1984. You also are most likely correct about Patton going from the Armor School to a posting in West Germany before arriving at DARCOM for his final tour.
A LESSON IN LEADERSHIP
In 1980, I was the Army Material Command (AMC) Logistics Assistance Representative to the 3rd Infantry Division in Germany. Around the spring of that year, about thirty AMC staffers in theater, including Field Maintenance Technicians from our commodity commands, were called down to a meeting at Nellingen barracks to meet and hear from a EUCOM Brigadier who was getting ready to take over a slot at Headquarters AMC in Alexandria, Va.
His name was George S. Patton III, namesake son of one of America’s most famous WWII generals. BG Patton greeted us all, talked about the important work we were doing to support the readiness of our forces, and proceeded to tell a “logistics” story about his days as a young lieutenant.
He was commanding a tank during an exercise, when his sergeant tapped his boot and said “Sir, the engine oil light has come on. We need to shut down.” Patton replied with an expletive and directed that they proceed. It wasn’t too long before the vehicle came to a grinding halt with a burned out engine. Patton’s company commander was a young captain named Creighten Abrams, also a name with some familiarity today. Capt. Abrams directed that the cost of the engine be taken out of Patton’s salary, and it was many, many years of garnished pay before he reimbursed the Treasury for his mistake in judgment.
Now the morale of this story, according to the General, was that he learned that “he should always pay attention to what his NCOs tell him”.