We are not too far from the outskirts of Louisville, KY so we drove the CR-V to see the offerings at the George S Patton Leadership Museum at Fort Knox.
Fort Knox is an active army post but you do not need to clear security to see the museum. You used to have to go through that bureaucracy but now they've made it so that the museum is outside the controlled areas of the post.
I was embarrassed to learn that Fort Knox is no longer the home of the army's armor school. They apparently move that to Fort Benning, GA in 2011!
The post is now home to the army's recruiting command and the ROTC command, hence all the ROTC leadership information and emphasis within the Patton museum. Seeing the ROTC displays confused me at first.
Of course, there were tanks and armored vehicles on display since the primary focus of the museum is Patton. There's no fee for admittance to the museum.
As usual, here's some of the stuff that caught my eye.
Patton was part of the Army first
motorized attack.
During large scale training exercises...
I'd always read about the general's matched pearl handled pistols that he wore with his uniform. Turns out, that's not the case, they were two different pistols and they were ivory handled.
General Patton often said his one true friend was his dog Willie, who accompanied him throughout the fighting in Europe. I found it amusing that, per protocol, Willie "outranked" then Lieutenant General Patton (3 stars) when Willie was issued his ID tag for his collar.
Yep, armored vehicles and tanks were displaced along with small arms from both sides.
Armored Artillery
Lee Medium Tank, used early in the war
Patton's home in the field
Sherman Tank
Some memorabilia:
All the major commands that Patton commanded while in command of the US 3rd Army:
No, the WTF initials in the flag below do not mean what they mean these days. Patton commanded the Western Task Force during Operation Torch, the US invasion of North Africa.
I am sure you heard or read about the incident where Patton lost control and slapped a couple of enlisted men who were suffering from shell shock. The general seemed to always be in some kind of trouble with the brass but the fact that he got results and fought always counted for more as well.
I then learned about the last disciplinary action taken on Patton by then Supreme Commander General Eisenhower:
Not too much later from when he was relieved of command of Third Army, Patton was injured in a traffic accident involving an Army two and a half ton truck and a limousine similar to the one below in which he was riding.
Patton suffered spinal injuries along with other injuries and would end up dying of a aneurysm soon after the accident. There was doubt before his death that he would ever walk again so I guess it's just as well he went out that way.
Outside the museum, there were three tanks on display. I'm only posting the one showing the M60 Patton tank which saw service in the '80s when I was posted to West Germany while on active duty. I saw many of them during my time with the First Armored Division.
After the Patton museum, we drove further into Louisville so that Martha could tour the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs. Parking was a nightmare as there was a horse race going on, so I just dropped her off at the entrance and went off to have lunch at a quiet park while she did her stuff. She will be blogging about it next week.
We return to the campsite with no further issues except occasional examples of idiot drivers on narrow country roads. The weekenders are showing up and I expect all the sites will be full by tomorrow.
