The Hammock Papers: Happy Birthday, Patton

11 November 2020

Happy Birthday, Patton

General George S. Patton was born on this day in 1885.

6 March, 1944

Letter of Instruction

Command

Leadership

Full Duty: Each, in all his appropriate sphere, will lead in person. Any commander who fails to obtain his objective, who is not dead or severely wounded, has not done his full duty.
Visits to the Front: The Commanding General or his Chief of Staff should visit the front daily.
Execution: In carrying out a mission, the promulgation of the order represents not over ten percent of your responsibility. The remaining ninety percent consists of proper and vigorous execution.
Rest Periods: Staff personnel who do not rest, do not last.
Location of Command Posts: The farther forward the Command Posts, the less time is wasted in driving to and from the front.
Plans: Plans must be simple and flexible. They should be made by people who are going to execute them.
Reconnaissance: You can never have too much
Keep Troops Informed: Use every means available before, during and after battle. Information is like eggs: the fresher the better.
Decorations: Decorations are for the purpose of raising the fighting value of the troops; therefore, they must be awarded promptly.
Discipline: There is only one kind of discipline - PERFECT DISCIPLINE. If you do not enforce and maintain discipline, you are potential murderers. You must set the example.

COURAGE: DO NOT TAKE COUNSEL OF YOUR FEARS.

The George S. Patton Story, narrated by Ronald Reagan ...

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WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

"When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone and of good cheer – say travelling in a carriage or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep – it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence, and how, they come I know not ; nor can I force them. Those ideas that please me I retain in memory and am accustomed, as I have been told, to hum them to myself. If I continue in this way, it soon occurs to me how I may turn this dainty morsel to account, so as to make a good dish of it. That is to say, agreeable to the rules of counterpoint, to the peculiarities of various instruments etc. All this fires my soul, and, provided I am not disturbed, my subject enlarges itself, becomes methodised, and defined, and the whole, though it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind, so that I can survey it like a fine picture or a beautiful statue at a glance. Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once. What a delight this is, I cannot tell."

MARCUS AURELIUS

"Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?' neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility."

VINCENT van GOGH

"What am I in the eyes of most people? A nonentity or an oddity or a disagreeable person — someone who has and will have no position in society, in short a little lower than the lowest. Very well — assuming that everything is indeed like that, then through my work I’d like to show what there is in the heart of such an oddity, such a nobody. This is my ambition, which is based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Even though I’m often in a mess, inside me there’s still a calm, pure harmony and music. In the poorest little house, in the filthiest corner, I see paintings or drawings. And my mind turns in that direction as if with an irresistible urge. As time passes, other things are increasingly excluded, and the more they are the faster my eyes see the picturesque. Art demands persistent work, work in spite of everything, and unceasing observation."

DAN CAMPBELL