doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Way OT -- General George S. Patton Jr.

George- thanks for the most kind and considerate words-I am trying to edit and shorten my posts, and an observation from a Southern Gentleman in the spirit of friendship is always welcome-If I get down to Flowery Branch area-and you are "in range" I'd be pleased to sip a Bourbon and Branch water with you- or a Sweet Tea-RWTF

Joe, I re-read your opinion a couple times, decided to sleep on it, and rose up and read it again. It's as clear, clean and fair analysis as I've read anywhere, and I thank you for it.

Eightbore- I think the term for the fencing sword might be "foil" seems to me that's right-I am sure Patton didn't use a calvary saber- didn't know he was in the 1912 Olympics- wasn't Jim Thorpe from Carlisle PA a star in that year?? Some all-around athlete!!

Joe- I also concur 100% with King Brown- your analysis is "dead nuts on target"- McNamara may have been Ford's "whiz kid" but that numbnut wanted all units and branches to wear the same uniform (before BDU) and footgear- and refused the extra cost to have the "piece of crap" M-16 revised with chromed chambers-at first- Charlie Cutshaw just reported that our troops are going back to the reliable M-14 (good move- I used the M-21 variant) and we went back to the equally reliable 1911 A-1 in .45ACP instead of the Beretta 9mm sidearm-Rumsfeld is like Cheney- only he hasn't shot any lawyers while quail hunting in TX- a stooge from the world of big business- you don't win wars by being "cost effective" you win 'em like Patton said- "By making the other bastards die and in far greater numbers"!!

Yeah, Thorpe was in the 1912 games. My family came from Ireland to Jim Thorpe, PA in 1852. At that time, Jim Thorpe was called Mauch Chunk, and it is now again Mauch Chunk. Mauch Chunk is in the middle of one shot pigeon country, some referring to it as hard coal country. I don't know if Thorpe came from Mauch Chunk or Carlisle but they named the town after him so I always assumed he came from MC. My family relocated to Hazleton before Jim Thorpe became famous. I just read that Thorpe was actually from Carlisle but is buried in Mauch Chunk. He was a "pentathalon" competitor where Patton competed in the "modern pentathalon" which is a different combination of sports.

Thorpe won both the pentathlon and the decathlon, which were combinations of various track and field events--the decathlon much as it is in current track competition. Thorpe's decathlon score stood as a record for something like 20 years. But he had to return his gold medals because he'd been paid to play baseball, and back then the Olympics were strictly amateur.

Carlisle was a college for Indians, and that's where Thorpe went to school. (He was from Oklahoma.) The Carlisle football team, with Thorpe as their star, won the national championship in 1912.

He was perhaps the greatest all-around athlete of all time, and in this era of specialization, we're unlikely to ever see anyone like him again.

There's a pretty decent movie about him from the 50's, starring Burt Lancaster (who was pretty athletic himself) as Thorpe: "Jim Thorpe, All American".