Ft. Knox - 02 Patton

Patton attended West Point (initially VMI and then WP) and was a star athlete in addition to being a top leader. Did you know he was on the US Olympic team placing 5th in the Pentathlon? The Pentathlon consisted of fencing, swimming, equestrian jumping, pistol shooting, and cross country running. He excelled in all of these skills. One of the many new tidbits for me in the museum. This is the last of the Patton posts. There is so much more in the museum.

Patton served with a ton of outfits/divisions. This was a cool flag with patches from all of them.

As we all know, Patton died following a car accident in France after the war. He was riding in the back of his car (replica in the photo below) because earlier he had his driver stop to let a dog (owned by one of his privates) that had been in an open-top jeep to ride in the front seat of his warm car. When the accident happened, he went forward and broke his neck on the partition to the front seat. He was paralyzed and in the hospital for nearly two weeks before dying from the complications (December 21, 1945). During those two weeks, he stopped the inquiry into the accident as he saw it as simply an accident. He did not want any of the people involved to lose their careers for such a simple accident. I guess he had seen enough death and destruction by that time.

Thanks,

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