Two things I heard on NPR today that totally surprised me.

[Jim Bow]

1. George Patton turned 60 the month before he died. Don’t know why, but I always thought he was an old man in WW2.

2. The cost of living in London UK is about 10% less than Seattle!

[CWSmith]

Re: Two things I heard on NPR today that totally surprised me.

1. George Patton turned 60 the month before he died. Don’t know why, but I always thought he was an old man in WW2.

There was a time when I thought 60 was an old man. Funny how the perspective changes.

[Jimmy W]

Re: Two things I heard on NPR today that totally surprised me.

Patton's chief of staff, Major General Hobart Gay, invited him on a December 9, 1945 pheasant hunting trip near Speyer to lift his spirits. Observing derelict cars along the side of the road, Patton said, "How awful war is. Think of the waste." Moments later the 1938 Cadillac limousine they were riding in collided with an American army truck at low speed.[211][212][213]

Gay and others were only slightly injured, but Patton hit his head on the glass partition that separated the front and back seat.[213] He began bleeding from a gash to the head, and complained that he was paralyzed and having trouble breathing. Taken to a hospital in Heidelberg, Patton was discovered to have a compression fracture and dislocation of the cervical third and fourth vertebrae, resulting in a broken neck and cervical spinal cord injury that rendered him paralyzed from the neck down.[212]

Patton spent most of the next 12 days in spinal traction to decrease the pressure on his spine. All non-medical visitors except Patton's wife Beatrice, 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 6:00 pm on December 21, 1945, at the age of 60.

[CWSmith]

Re: Two things I heard on NPR today that totally surprised me.

There was a time when he owned or rented the house next door to the house my parents eventually bought (not at the same time). I often wondered what he would be like as a neighbor? Would he be the kindly old man who enjoyed the local kids, or the grouch who was always yelling at them?

[Mrleft88]

Re: Two things I heard on NPR today that totally surprised me.

I kind of liked "8 Is Enough".... But not very much.

[ron ll]

Re: Two things I heard on NPR today that totally surprised me.

Can’t think of him as other than George C. Scott.

[Nicholas Scheuer]

Re: Two things I heard on NPR today that totally surprised me.

Gen Patton's voice was nothing like Geo C Scott's.

[Rich Jones]

Re: Two things I heard on NPR today that totally surprised me.

I'm always reminded of his Alden schooner WHEN AND IF, a boat he never got to sail.

[J P]

Re: Two things I heard on NPR today that totally surprised me.

I'm always reminded of his Alden schooner WHEN AND IF, a boat he never got to sail.

And I'm reminded of his other Alden schooner ARCTURUS. Saw her a few times under sail in our outings in NZ. She's a beaut.

[Boatbum]

Re: Two things I heard on NPR today that totally surprised me.

He had a very nice Alden designed yacht that he sailed extensively before the war. Stayed in the family until donated to Landmark School in 1972

Port-bow-daysail.jpg

Later added: I stand corrected, he did not sail this one much - it was his previous yacht thta he sailed alot.

[Breakaway]

Two things I heard on NPR today that totally surprised me.

Designed a new cavalry sabre. Competed in Pentathalon in the 1912 Olympics. Fought in the Mexican Revolution, WWI and WWII.

Lot of living crammed into those 60 years.


Kevin


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro