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