Audie L. Murphy Memorial Website Message Boards

Would have loved to have seen what General Patton would have written on the petition had he still been with us during Dave's petition drive. You know Patton would have loved a soldier who accomplished what Audie did in the war.

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"You lead from the front." Audie Murphy, WWII's Most Decorated Soldier

And he had a way w/ words

Yes he did have a way with words. You didn't have to guess which side of the fence he was on. He didn't ride the fence. While he despised one who wouldn't fight, he loved a fighter. That's why Audie would have been Patton's type of soldier.

The sad part is, he couldn't have survived in today's army. He certainly couldn't have ever been politically correct. Today's politicians would rather be politically correct, rather than be victorious.

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"You lead from the front." Audie Murphy, WWII's Most Decorated Soldier

No, patton would not do very well now, but only because instead of protecting him, a little, as they did once, the Media would have just had a field day, allowing Patton,destroy himself. lol

But his way with words would have been great for the petition! lol

I wonder what Audie made of him. Audie Murphy was fiercly against things like, bullies, soldiers lives being wasted, grand falcity, any pretensions, although he did love a good fighter .

addie

Patton would have said he was against wasting lives also-he believed in quick and decisive strokes against the enemy, and he accomplished a great deal when he wasn't trying to do stupid things like rescue his son-in-law from that POW camp. The media did not work very hard to protect him, except to the extent that Patton's superiors managed to convince them that it was their patriotic duty to not stir up trouble about high-ranking Allied officers. As for today, yes, he would probably have been forced to resign from the military at some point after shooting his mouth off, but today there's always a market for someone who's provocative, politically incorrect and good with words, whether he's left-wing or right-wing. Patton also came from a fairly old and very wealthy family; he was rich enough to buy parts for his tank units when they were underfunded, rich enough to equip his troops with winter gear, which he did. People like that never get in any serious trouble with the people who run the country.

That said, I did once see a news article where Murph expressed some distaste for the command's decision to hype up the soldiers preparing to land on Sicily with speeches about how this was a hard fight and the Sicilians were likely to resist to the last man and woman, and the Allies needed to be prepared to fight that kind of fight, when it turned out that no, the Sicilians weren't really going to put up that kind of a fight. Any such speeches Murph would have heard from his superiors would have ultimately been patterned on Patton's flamboyant speeches about the upcoming Sicilian campaign, so you could read some disapproval of Patton's attitudes, as filtered through several layers of brass, into that. But it's a very oblique critique, compared to Murph's famous collision with Gen. Mark Clark, for instance, and it's interesting that no bright Hollywood journalist tried to drum up some human interest by asking Murph his opinion of "Patton" the movie, which premiered in his lifetime.

Christie and All:

George Patton in todays society would have never graduated the Academy at West Point. Many of the great combat leaders who lead us to victory in WWII would never be allowed to continue service in todays military. We have over the course of the last 40 years, become a zero-defect military.
One small mistake and your career is over. A couple of good examples are Generals Singlaub and McCrystal.
Those who "ruffle the feathers" aren't allowed to continue but rather "put out to pasture."
That isn't to say they were/are not great leaders and soldiers, but just rather a reflection of the way our military has changed over the course of time.

Thanks,

Dave

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"I believe in all the men who stood up against the enemy, taking their beatings without whimper and their triumphs without boasting. The men who went and would go again to hell and back to preserve what our country thinks right and decent."