Those who know George Patton's politics, his revulsion of communism and all things Russian, and who also understand the....affection....that Franklin Roosevelt had for Stalin and the Soviet political elite, will find the following both interesting and hermeneutical.
Here, the proximate event:
1. "General Patton "is getting well like a house afire," the Associated Press reported
four days ago, basing its information on the army's daily 6:00 p.m. briefing about his condition. The story also reported that Patton sat up in bed, throwing off his injury "with a speed reminiscent of his wartime advances."
2. The truth, however, is far different. Gen. George S. Patton Jr. is paralyzed from the neck down. Bones in his spine were dislocated when his car collided with an army truck full of drunken joyriding soldiers. Patton's number three cervical vertebra was shattered, badly bruising his spinal cord. The good news is that he has recovered some movement in his extremities. The bad news is that his doctors believe it is highly unlikely he will walk again.
3. Throughout the course of the Second World War, he made many high-ranking enemies in Moscow, Berlin, London, and even Washington, DC. Patton's fiery determination to speak the truth had many powerful men squirming not only during the war, but also afterward. He recently went on the record praising his former German enemies for their skills as soldiers, while also criticizing the Soviet Union as being a foe rather than an ally of the United States.
Some have come to see Patton as a roadblock to world peace. And now Patton is at his most vulnerable, an easy target for any of those enemies."
O'Reilly and Dugard, " Killing Patton"
4. " On December 8, 1945, Patton's chief of staff, Major General Hobart Gay, invited him on apheasant hunting trip nearSpeyerto lift his spirits. At 11:45 on December 9, Patton and Gay were riding in Patton's1938 Cadillac Model 75 staff car driven by Private First Class Horace L. Woodring when they stopped at a railroad intersection inMannheim-Käfertalto allow a train to pass....
Woodring glanced away from the road when a 2½ ton GMC truck driven by Technical Sergeant Robert L. Thompson, who was en route to a quartermaster depot, suddenly made a left turn in front of the car. Woodring slammed the brakes and turned sharply to the left, colliding with the truck at a low speed.
Taken to a hospital in Heidelberg, Patton was discovered to have a compression fracture and dislocation of the third and fourth vertebrae, resulting in a broken neck and cervical spinal cord injury which rendered him paralyzed from the neck down. He spent most of the next 12 days in spinal traction to decrease spinal pressure. Although in some pain from this procedure, he reportedly never complained about it. All non-medical visitors, except for Patton's wife, who had flown from the U.S., were forbidden. Patton, who had been told he had no chance to ever again ride a horse or resume normal life, at one point commented, "This is a hell of a way to die." He died in his sleep of pulmonary edema and congestive heart failure at about 18:00 on December 21, 1945."
"Patton: A Biography (Great Generals)," by Alan Axelrod and Wesley K. Clark, p. 167-169
a. " The official causes of death, as listed in the army adjutant general's report, are "traumatic myelitis, transverse fourth cervical segment, pulmonary infarction, and myocardial failure, acute. There is no autopsy."
O'Reilly, Op.Cit.
b. "Patton was the only passenger hurt that cold day in what essentially was described as a "fender-bender." Two others in the car with him were uninjured, as were those in the truck that suddenly turned and caused the crash.... Where are the records of their visit -- and of the accident itself? All reports and investigations have inexplicably disappeared."
Articles The Mysterious Death of Gen. George S. Patton
Here, the proximate event:
1. "General Patton "is getting well like a house afire," the Associated Press reported
four days ago, basing its information on the army's daily 6:00 p.m. briefing about his condition. The story also reported that Patton sat up in bed, throwing off his injury "with a speed reminiscent of his wartime advances."
2. The truth, however, is far different. Gen. George S. Patton Jr. is paralyzed from the neck down. Bones in his spine were dislocated when his car collided with an army truck full of drunken joyriding soldiers. Patton's number three cervical vertebra was shattered, badly bruising his spinal cord. The good news is that he has recovered some movement in his extremities. The bad news is that his doctors believe it is highly unlikely he will walk again.
3. Throughout the course of the Second World War, he made many high-ranking enemies in Moscow, Berlin, London, and even Washington, DC. Patton's fiery determination to speak the truth had many powerful men squirming not only during the war, but also afterward. He recently went on the record praising his former German enemies for their skills as soldiers, while also criticizing the Soviet Union as being a foe rather than an ally of the United States.
Some have come to see Patton as a roadblock to world peace. And now Patton is at his most vulnerable, an easy target for any of those enemies."
O'Reilly and Dugard, " Killing Patton"
4. " On December 8, 1945, Patton's chief of staff, Major General Hobart Gay, invited him on apheasant hunting trip nearSpeyerto lift his spirits. At 11:45 on December 9, Patton and Gay were riding in Patton's1938 Cadillac Model 75 staff car driven by Private First Class Horace L. Woodring when they stopped at a railroad intersection inMannheim-Käfertalto allow a train to pass....
Woodring glanced away from the road when a 2½ ton GMC truck driven by Technical Sergeant Robert L. Thompson, who was en route to a quartermaster depot, suddenly made a left turn in front of the car. Woodring slammed the brakes and turned sharply to the left, colliding with the truck at a low speed.
Taken to a hospital in Heidelberg, Patton was discovered to have a compression fracture and dislocation of the third and fourth vertebrae, resulting in a broken neck and cervical spinal cord injury which rendered him paralyzed from the neck down. He spent most of the next 12 days in spinal traction to decrease spinal pressure. Although in some pain from this procedure, he reportedly never complained about it. All non-medical visitors, except for Patton's wife, who had flown from the U.S., were forbidden. Patton, who had been told he had no chance to ever again ride a horse or resume normal life, at one point commented, "This is a hell of a way to die." He died in his sleep of pulmonary edema and congestive heart failure at about 18:00 on December 21, 1945."
"Patton: A Biography (Great Generals)," by Alan Axelrod and Wesley K. Clark, p. 167-169
a. " The official causes of death, as listed in the army adjutant general's report, are "traumatic myelitis, transverse fourth cervical segment, pulmonary infarction, and myocardial failure, acute. There is no autopsy."
O'Reilly, Op.Cit.
b. "Patton was the only passenger hurt that cold day in what essentially was described as a "fender-bender." Two others in the car with him were uninjured, as were those in the truck that suddenly turned and caused the crash.... Where are the records of their visit -- and of the accident itself? All reports and investigations have inexplicably disappeared."
Articles The Mysterious Death of Gen. George S. Patton
