What Patton achieved was 'monumental'

[Kyt]

Err, I'm not sure whether I would agree completely with this article, but as always, members should make up their own minds

http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dl...711110308/1026

Though Gen. George S. Patton Jr. is known for a rough, tough, profanity-spewing, flamboyant image, his greatest accomplishments were as a trainer of troops.

Patton's development of the Desert Training Center is a testimony to his training abilities - as is the gallant performance of the troops who went through the facility, said retired Army Lt. Col. Carlo D'Este.

He's a noted World War II historian and author whose books include the biography "Patton: A Genius for War."

During World War I, Patton essentially built and trained the U.S. Tank Corps from scratch in France, "when he was the only one who knew what an armored tank was," D'Este said.

Just before coming to the desert, Patton had made great strides in creating a training regimen for troops at Fort Benning, Ga. Though a California native born in San Gabriel, Patton was "as new to the desert as anyone else" by the time he came west to build the Desert Training Center, D'Este said.

There was no training guide for desert warfare for Patton to follow, but "he had a plan for how to harden the troops," D'Este said.

Patton scouted the desert of southeastern California and western Arizona by airplane - which he piloted himself - and by ground in early March.

Within three days, he decided on the training center's ultimate location.

Patton brought in desert locals and an expert on the Gobi desert.

"He did what he typically did throughout his life when he was thrust into a new situation - he learned everything he could about it," D'Este said.

The area's harsh conditions - temperatures approaching 120 degrees during summer days; near freezing on winter nights - were perfect for Patton's purposes: hardening U.S. soldiers.

In one of the mountain ranges within the Desert Training Center, about 250 rifle pits, depressions created by soldiers that shielded them behind rock, still can be seen.

They're textbook Patton on how to take a defensive position in a pass, said federal Bureau of Land Management archaeologist Rolla Queen.

"You can literally go out in the desert and follow Patton's manual on training chapter by chapter," he said.

Patton took a hands-on approach. Upon encountering a soldier whose truck had broken down, Patton crawled underneath with the driver to see what the trouble was, D'Este said.

Patton set up a speaker system that broadcast music throughout the camp system.

He installed microphones in his office and tent to deliver messages to his troops with the flick of a switch - chastising an officer, praising a private.

"He insisted on living out there," D'Este said. "He could have lived in Indio - his wife was there, she had a little house, and he barely saw her."

Though the Desert Training Center was largely his brainchild, Patton would not stay there long. By July 1942 he'd been called to head the Army's Western Task Force in North Africa. His exploits in North Africa and Sicily, his race across France after D-Day and his performance at the Battle of the Bulge became the stuff of legend.

Following the end of World War II, Patton was seriously injured in a car crash while still in Germany on Dec. 9, 1945. He died less than two weeks later.

Patton's imprint on the Desert Training Center and how it would operate stayed behind even after he headed overseas to fight, D'Este said.

"In that amazingly short time, from April to July (1942)," D'Este said, "what was accomplished out there really was almost monumental."