In Memoriam...  George S Patton IV... June 27, 2004

Gen. George S. Patton, 80, Son of World War II Commander, Dies
By DAVID STOUT
The New York Times, Published: June 30, 2004

WASHINGTON, June 29 - Maj. Gen. George S. Patton, the son and namesake of the World War II armored commander and a veteran of combat in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, died on Sunday June 27 at his home in Hamilton, Mass. He was 80.

General Patton, who retired from the Army in 1980, had been in poor health for years because of complications from hip surgery and other ailments, his wife, Joanne, said.

The younger General Patton was occasionally asked whether he felt overshadowed by his father, who gained fame for his exploits in North Africa, Sicily and France and who was introduced to new generations of Americans through George C. Scott's movie portrayal. "I've never worried about it," the son said in an interview in 1977. "I've been too busy."

The younger officer was wounded in one of his three Vietnam tours and was awarded a Purple Heart. He was twice awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest decoration for bravery in combat.

George Smith Patton was in his last year at West Point when his father, George S. Patton Jr., was killed in a traffic accident in Germany in December 1945. For a time, the younger man was known as George S. Patton III, but he eventually dropped the Roman numeral, his wife said.

General Patton acknowledged that, just as his father had, he demanded a spit-and-polish look from his soldiers. And like his father, he loved history and spoke French, Joanne Patton said. He received a master's in international affairs from George Washington University.

As a colonel, he commanded the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam. As a major general in 1975, he took command of the Second Armored Division at Fort Hood, Tex. His father had led the division in North Africa.

In 1964, the younger George Patton and other relatives objected to a new biography of the World War II commander, "Ordeal and Triumph," saying it used unauthorized material from the general's wartime diaries. Some material was deleted, and the book was published.

In retirement, the general ran Green Meadows Farm in Hamilton, north of Boston.

Also surviving are three sons, George, of Hamilton; Robert, of Darien, Conn.; and Benjamin, of New York; two daughters, Mother Margaret Patton, a nun in Bethlehem, Conn., and Helen Plusczyk of Saarbrücken, Germany; six grandchildren; and a great-grandson.

OBITUARY FOR A PATRIOT: Maj. Gen George S. Patton Dies at 80
by Scott Stanley, Jr.

George Smith Patton III was a senior at West Point when his famous father was killed in a bizarre December 1945 road accident in Germany. When Westbrook Pegler and other journalists approached Bea Patton for confirmation from her husband's papers that Gen. Dwight Eisenhower had carried on a notorious affair with his British driver Kaye Summersby, she refused, explaining that she did not believe loose talk and, besides, her son was a career officer. He was indeed, and a very good one. The younger Patton first saw action in Korea and later served three tours in Vietnam, where he was awarded a Purple Heart and two Distinguished Service Crosses.

As a colonel he commanded the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam and rose to the rank of major general when he was about to be named commander of U.S. armored forces in Germany. It was 1980, Jimmy Carter was president, and when the Soviets objected to so able a son of their old enemy being given such a command, Carter flinched and Patton retired in disgust.

At the family home in Hamilton, Mass., with his wife Joanne, Patton turned his hand in retirement to the unlikely profession of "tomato farmer" at Green Meadow Farm, the family estate, and delighted to sell his produce at a roadside stand. Patton's friend, Lt. Gen. Charley Brown, told the story of a ragtag National Guard tank convoy that had stopped to buy cold cider at the Patton stand and returned to headquarters that evening to report an encounter with a crazy old farmer who chewed them out for the shabby state of their equipment, their dress, and their demeanor.

"And get this," a National Guard private confided to the colonel in charge of the armory, "the crazy old son of a bitch thought he was Gen. George S. Patton."

He was indeed, every inch of him, and when the turncoat John F. Kerry ran for the U.S. Senate, Patton called a press conference, declared Kerry to be "soft on communism," and said that by providing propaganda for the enemy during the Vietnam War, Kerry "gave aid and comfort to the enemy and probably caused some of my guys to get killed."

How George would have loved it that today the New York Times gave exactly twice as much space to the obituary of lifelong communist propagandist Agnes Cunningham as it did to his. No doubt that would have amused him as much as his retirement business cards, printed in green ink, that read: "George S. Patton, Farmer."

Funeral services will be held Wednesday, July 7, at 10 a.m. in St. John's Episcopal Church, Beverly Farms, Mass.; his burial service will take place at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, Aug. 27, at 11 a.m.