Dad's War

A Left-Handed Claim to Fame

            General George S. Patton, Jr., probably best known for his defeat of General Rommel (known as the Desert Fox) in the deserts of North Africa, had suffered a broken neck in a vehicle accident and was being treated in a hospital unit close to where my dad’s unit was positioned.  Dad was in the motor pool at that time and was assigned to deliver truckloads of coal to the hospital unit.  While he was there one day, he was told General Patton was there.  Although he did not see, or meet him, this is the closest Dad came to meeting someone famous in the war, so he always regarded this as one of his claims to fame.

I Like Ike

            General Dwight D. Eisenhower, a five star general, was the Supreme Commander and Chief of the American troops.  Since Dad had a brush with fame by almost meeting General Patton, I asked him if he had ever met General Eisenhower.  He told me that he never actually met him, but he did see him in person one time.  One day, while the troops were standing at attention during a troop inspection at Dad’s camp, the general’s jeep came driving by and he greeted the troops with a salute and wave.  As everyone knows, General Eisenhower later became the president of the United States.

“Put’em Up, Soldier!”

            One day, while with a convoy waiting to drive his vehicle through a checkpoint, a couple of armed MPs (military policemen) approached Dad’s vehicle and tapped on the window.  He opened it and was asked by one of them to exit the vehicle and come with them inside the office.  Once inside, they asked Dad to tell them who had won the World Series for the last two years.  He told them he did not know because he had been on the battlefield during that time and had not had access to the information.  They continued questioning him about other subjects an American should know.  They asked him what a two-pence was, and when he answered correctly they were satisfied.  They told him he was released and could return to his vehicle.  Before he left, he asked for an explanation as to why he was detained and questioned so rigorously.  They immediately pointed to the scarf around his neck.  It turned out that a few days before this incident he had found a discarded German parachute on a battlefield.  It was made of quality material and felt as smooth as silk.  He had used his knife to cut a sizable piece of the parachute and wrapped it around his neck as a shield from the cold.  When the MPs saw the scarf, they recognized it as German material and became suspicious that Dad could be a spy.  Unbeknownst to Dad, scarves were sometimes used by German spies as a way to alert other undercover operatives.  So as not to be mistaken for a spy again in the future, he took off the scarf on the way out and threw it away.