In 1986, while living quietly in Taft, Texas, he was contacted by 3-32 Armor members who were doing research on the unit history. He was invited to visit then at Ft. Hood. He was very surprised to find out they remembered him. The first thing that he did when he got to Ft. Hood was go for a ride in an M-1 tank. Afterwards, Pool told the young 3-32 tankers gathered around him some differences between being a tanker in WWII and being one today. "The most important thing for a tank commander to do is keep his crew alive. The tank crews today have the technology to do what we had to do with our eyes and ears," Pool said. "We did very little fighting at night." He added "I only fought once at night and I never wanted to do it again. Today you have the thermal sighting capability that we didn't have."
GET'EM - World War II Hero Lafayette G. Pool, right, and Lt. Col. Len Hawley, commander of the 3d Battalion, 32d Armor Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, watch a tank and crew head down range Thursday at Fort Hood. Pool noted the differences between today's M-1 tank and his WWII Sherman.
On his third visit to the post he watched the tanks live fire on the range. "Colonel, if we had the equipment back then that you have now, we would have cleaned up," he told the commander of the 3-32 Armor. The Colonel said of Pool, "I want him to talk to the soldiers. He tells them the same kinds of things that I try to teach them, but coming from him it's special because he's lived it."
Later Pool was the honored guest speaker at the battalion NCO ball. Three hundred twenty five NCO's attended. Lafayette was adopted by the 3-32 Armor and he, in turn, adopted them, referring to them as "His Boys."
Desert Storm found the 3-32 Armor in the thick of battle against the Iraqi Armor. Lafayette was in a hospital bed, very ill, but he watched the war constantly on television fretting and worrying about "his boys." When the fighting had ceased he kept asking his wife Evelyn, "Honey, are my boys back yet?" When they finally got back to Fort Hood, Evelyn told him they were back and soon after this on May 30, 1991, Pool passed away in his sleep.
Pool was survived by his wife Evelyn, three sons and four daughters. One other son Capt. Jerry L. Pool, was missing in action in Cambodia in 1970. Before his death, the Army decided to name its new M-1 tank driver training facility after Pool, even waving the fact that he was still alive. Dedicated on July 1, 1993, today the facility at Fort Knox serves to train new tank drivers to drive the M-1 series of tanks.
At present the facility has ten systems of two simulators each. One system has been converted to M1 AR configuration. The authors were able to try out a simulator thanks to Irene Armstrong, secretary of protocol and found it an excellent approach to learning to drive. The savings in fuel, thrown tracks, and wear and tear, plus damage to real tanks is tremendous, and will more than pay for its initial cost. Each new tanker is given twelve hours of training before he transitions into the real thing. Scenarios can be varied from desert and artic terrain to urban driving. Weather can vary, artillery fire can be received, the tank's main gun can be fired by the controller, plus night or day time driving with open hatches or closed down on periscopes, all these things make this simulator the closest thing to actual driving a real tank to date. Our controller, SFC Byrd, told us the simulator is much more difficult that actually driving the "real" M1.
Today Lafayette G. Pool is remembered not only as our top tank ace but also as a man who believed in training hard and doing the job right the first time, as there may not be a second time in modern warfare.
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