U. S Army Signal Corps give or take a minute. I had a special little wrench. It was shorter than a typical wrench and you could get your hand in there and take the four bolts out of the transmission, then the radiator, disconnect the manifold, and pull out the engine. Forty minutes is all it took. It was a special skill that helped me contribute during the war.
I always hoped to be on the front lines. I joined the selective service before the war began, in April, 1941, eight months before Pearl Harbor. I grew up in a little coal-mining town near Pottsville, Pennsylvania. There
ON THE BRINK OF VICTORY, THE GENERALS: EISENHOWER, PATTON, BRADLEY, AND HODGES. GERMANY, 25 MARCH, 1945.
were four of us from Pottsville that all went through the Army enlistment process together. We began in Hazleton and from there we went on to Camp Storey, in Virginia. Eventually, I made my way to automotive school.
The opportunity to drive Gen. Patton around gave me a unique perspective on the war. Everything he did, I saw.
Just like you see in the movies, Gen. Patton loved to stand up in the jeep. He always did that. He would wave and“ fire up” the troops to get moving toward Berlin. He loved to stand up in that thing. It’ s amazing they never shot him. But in all those photographs you see of Gen. Patton, standing up in the jeep waving his arms around, I’ m the one behind the wheel.
He rarely ever talked about home.
20 AMERICAN VALOR QUARTERLY