As a boy growing up in a small Central Washington farming community, one of my first recollections was that soldier in the framed picture that hung above my father's roll-top desk. The helmet had four stars and the stern look on the soldier's face was anything but friendly. Yet, there it was, my father's prize possession, a photo he viewed so reverently that it maintained its prime location for several decades until my dad sold his newspaper and moved out of his office.
The man in the picture was General George S. Patton, someone that my generation knew little about until he was made famous by George C. Scott's portrayal of him in the 1970 movie classic, Patton. But my father knew. As a U.S. Army major, he had served with Patton in Europe and apparently held a high enough position to have regular contact with old Blood-and-Guts himself. He traveled with the Patton headquarters team as the Third Army moved across Europe in the final stages of World War II.
