Message for Hammer

[fordnmerc]

Adam,
I just joined here, after reading the Stangman96 mess. I no longer have a Mustang (had a 73 for several years) but I might again in the future.

I feel you have nothing to apologize for. We ALL skim through things at times, when we really should be more thorough. You corrected yourself, so your conscience should be clear. Don't let it bother you.

I also feel that there is no reason to delete the thread. It should stand.

My question for you is this: What is with the photo of Patton? The unenlightened think that he was some kind of a hero. The reality is that he was a glory-hunting idiot who got a lot of his troops killed unnecessarily. A lot of them hated his guts, because they watched as their buddies were needlessly sacrificed. Supposedly, his jeep was in an accident which gave him the head wound that finally killed him. The truth is that one of his own men whacked him in the head. The accident was staged. My father was in WWII, in the Pacific, but he had a close friend who served under Patton and when the war was over he told my father what really took place.

Patton was just plain crazy. He claimed to have been an old Roman centurion in a former life. He also said that he only lived for war and that, "The final shot fired in battle should kill me." Not the statement of a guy who is running on all cylinders....

I am not bringing this up for the sake of 'political correctness.' I don't give a hang about that. I just feel that Patton should not be remembered in any kind of a positive way, because of the many men under him who died for no sound tactical reason. To Patton, his men were just cannon fodder to be used to elevate himself to glory. Anyone who is convinced otherwise, and who thinks Patton was some 'great leader,' does not know the whole story.

On behalf of those whose lives were lost in vain under Patton's command, I hope you will choose someone else for your photo here.

I am not saying that every man who died in Patton's command was needlessly sacrificed. But many WERE. Patton's only real tactic was frontal assault, no matter how high the casualty count would be. That strategy makes for a high body count among your own ranks and it went out with the British in the Revolutionary War. You have to hit and run, hit and run. The run part is not cowardice. You don't go far. You just regroup to hit again, from a different angle of attack, to keep the enemy off balance and give your men the best chance for survival.

Sorry for the long post, but I thought you might want to know a little more about Patton and why he does not deserve admiration.

[Hammer]

Well,
I guess you learn something new every day...

Actually, the pic comes from an inside joke between me and some of the forum members. Some time back it was said (jokingly) that the moderator of this forum (me) ruled with an "iron fist". I felt that the Patton pic fit the joke perfectly.

I tend to switch avatars after a while, so I'm sure this one will be going away too at some point.

On a side note, I'm a HUGE WWII buff, actually a WWII aviation buff. If you want to know who my war hero is, its Pappy Boyington of the Black Sheep. I've got a signed picture of him hanging on my wall at this moment. I also have a group pic of the "Black Sheep" signed by Ed Harper.

Thanks for the info on Patton. While it goes against what the popular version of him is, it doesn't necessarily surprise me....

[fordnmerc]

Thanks for the quick reply, Adam.

Do you have a copy of 'Big Bombers of WWII' ? A great book! Goes into detail about all the big planes and even lists the ones that are known to still survive and where they were located as of the printing.

We have The National Warplane Museum just 20 miles south of here. They had a B-17, 'Fuddy Duddy,' but had to sell her, because they were deeply in debt. I went all through her last October, when they had an open house. (It was free, but I did contribute $100 to the museum's coffers.) A great plane! They still have a lot of other great aircraft there. Well worth a visit, for anyone who is interested.

I am doing a kind of Air Force/Air Corps theme with my 79 Ranchero GT. I was looking through an old HotRod magazine from 1973. It had an Air Force recruiting ad that featured a red 71/72 Mustang convertible. Looking at the picture closely, I noticed that the license plate on the car was a New York State plate: 5W-4516. I checked the NYS DMV website and found that no one was using that number anymore. So I ordered it. That got me started. It's kind of a natural, because the paint on the Ranchero is dark blue (with blue interior), like Air Force uniforms, and the seat in it is what Ford called the 'Flight' bench seat.

The grille ornament was faded, so I bought an Air Force grille badge.

I bought an airplane hood ornament that was originally on a 1954 Ford Crestline. I plan to paint that flat black, sort of like a Stealth, and mount that on the hood of the Ranchero. I didn't get the base for the ornament, as the seller only had the ornament itself, so I have to figure out just how to mount it and have it angled the way I want.

I put on a set of 1960 Ford Galaxie cone shaped wheel covers. The stacked headlight design of the 77 to 79 Ranchero and LTD II makes them look like dream vehicles of the 60s, and those wheel covers add to the retro appearance. But they also have a little resemblance to the nose cones of airplanes and rockets.

I bought a current issue brown leather flight jacket, Air Force sunglasses, a Marathon military watch, and a WWII vintage Army visor cap (the Air Corps was part of the Army in that era, so they all wore the same type). No uniforms, patches, or insignia of any kind. That would be going overboard. It is not my intention to impersonate something that I am not. Just paying tribute to our airmen, past and present.

I liked my 73 Mustang, but my Ranchero has much more utility.

If Mustangs are like fighter jets, the Ranchero is like a C-130 cargo plane. It will haul a lot of gear!

Adam, did you ever watch that short-lived tv series 'Tales of The Gold Monkey,' with the old Grumman Goose? That was another great plane!