We have a bunch of Senior Officers. Senior means age, not rank. They review the manuscripts and make a recommendation to the director of the book program, and then the wheels start rolling. The negotiation with the publisher goes on between the book Program Director and the author himself. Weve got a nice stable of printing houses, universities, and other organizations that produce our books. As a bit of history, in the audience in the back, dr. Roger cirillo, who was really the genesis, start of this years book program. A number of years ago when it came under attack, we brought roger in and he resolved it and kept it running. Roger is a colonel in the regiment. If you are a tanker, you know what regiment im talking about. Im not a tanker. Im an engineer. In the last row, and some of you have heard this story before, is a retired general, but in the opening days of world war ii, this individual was stationed in greenland as an army weatherman. Back then i think you were a tech sergeant, who had launched the balloons. He was in charge of launching the balloons, that was the day the balloon went over and eisenhowers weatherman gave him the balloon report. It has not been able to make any history books. Outside of being a distinguished and a greatausa, mentor of many officers, we are pleased to have you and your wife here. We go back to when i was a cadet. There are no stories on that. We have other former authors here. Thank you for being here. The rules of engagement are you were all frisked on the way in, so we know there are no tomatoes, there are no eggs. We will take questions from the floor or pass the microphone around, and we will do that at the conclusion of each of the two sessions. That way the authors can be quizzed or asked to explain. Without any more of me banging on, our first panel deals with controversial and unconventional leaders in the army. We have quite a melange of leaders in the first books. Over to you. Ok. Thanks for having me. Before i start, i would like to thank ausa and joe craig for setting all this up as well as the University Press of kentucky for publishing my book. This book goes back a few years. The process of writing it was very quick. It was from contract to publication about two years. The origin of the book goes back to when i was in grad school, just graduated undergrad, and i met with martin bloominson, who some of you may know. He was a third u. S. Army historian in world war ii and the leading patton biographer. It was his discussions, usually over a gimlet at his house, to talk about two things close to his heart, general mark clark, which i wrote a book on a few years earlier, and then patton. He really enjoyed patton. His papers were on the bestsellers list. We would talk about in regards to a dissertation, what should i write about, he said right about clark, and when youre older, right about patton in world war i. The reason was he felt no one had focused on patton in world war i. Theres a lot of good books on patton. Theres a lot of bad books on patton as well. I thought it went well with his theme of unconventional. Patton is a very controversial figure, and that stems from world war ii. He had the slapping incidences that still hurt his career, his legacy, but when most americans talk about george patton, they think of george c. Scott in front of a flag. That is not actually george patton. As hard as it is to see, george c. Scotts impersonation, his acting, is a little different than the real george patton. One of the reasons i wrote patton world war i as this is an honest assessment of george patton. In 19171918, he is a Second Lieutenant, then a captain, and he was a very avid writer. He wrote to his wife very often, sometimes three times a day. And he kept a diary and journal. In his journal in world war ii, if you read it, he is very aware he is going to be famous and years from now historians will read this, and his diary and journals, when you read them, you have to take them with a big scoop of salt because its not really it is for historians 50 years down the line. In world war i, he is just a Second Lieutenant that becomes a Brigade Commander colonel at age 33. He is a cog in the machine, just one guy, and he does not really know exactly where he will be in the historical sense, so his diaries are much more honest, much more useful for historian. When i started researching patton in world war i, what became very clear is he is a very professional, very competent officer, and i teach at the command general staff college. We have a lot of majors come through. Patton was around the same age as most of my students. Theres a lot of specialty branches, and patton was given basically the job of establishing the u. S. Army tank corps as a captain by himself. He was told to pick a tank for the u. S. Then, when you pick it out, i want you to write a paper on it and say what we need to improve and send it to the american manufacturers. Then, your next job is to figure out where you are going to build the training grounds for the tank school, and patton had to actually pick the ground, draw designs for it, then negotiate with the local community to purchase it. When the land was purchased, he had to develop the training program, and when the tanks finally started to show up later than they were supposed to, patton is the only one that knows how to drive a tank. What it shows you is this young officer was highly competent. In world war ii, he is viewed as kind of this gunslinger. Maybe he does not plan logistics, his staff is not as good, but patton showed at a very early age he was very competent and knew exactly what he wanted. As a young captain, he goes to france and figures out what tank to use. He likes the french renault tank. For a few reasons. Mainly, he really liked anything french. Fluent in french, has wife was educated in french. He picked it because it was a little more reliable. Patton will write a 50page tank paper. In it, it is good engineering work. It goes into everything from how to drive the tank to how to look outside the tank. Patton is the one that realized foot, 61,out 6 the europeanmade tanks were too short for americans. He basically increases the height an inch and a half, two inches on every renault tank. He has his hands in all of this. Also, what i got into is patton is very famous for his world war ii speeches. A lot of profanity. One of the underlying themes of my book is to kind of discuss how patton became george c. Scott in front of a flag. What happened here is he creates that image in 1917, 1918, because he is really playing a part. A lot of it was inspired by john pershing, who he was an aid for and fought very hard to get on his staff and will fight very hard to get out of his staff. One thing consistent about patton in both world wars is he wants medals and he wants command, and he is in a pretty good position as pershings aid e to camp. Everyone pretty much knows that pershing is going to be the man for americans, but he goes out on his own and establishes the tank corps. He will do a remarkable job and participate in two operations. One major operation is where he will be wounded. The reason he gets wounded is because he was very aggressive. As he has a reputation for in world war ii, he believes leaders, commanders, officers lead from the front. With patton, he will get in a little trouble with his boss, a brigadier general, sam rocken back. They never got along great. Rockenback was a little older, a little quieter, but he was in many ways the perfect man for the job because he kept patton a little bit out of trouble. He kept him on administrative work, which he did not want to do. Patton was focused on the fight and nothing but the fight. Patton will never say too many nice things about his old boss. As an example of how he became a great leader in world war i and how it affects world war ii, im going to review a letter written to beatrice patton, George Pattons wife. 23 february, 1945. By this point, patton is a hero, normandy has happened. The war in europe is beginning to close, and rockenbach wrote s wifetter to patton about how he had changed from world war i to world war ii and i will read this slowly because general rockenbach is not a good typist. There are some letters missing and some gaps. Here goes. He was, in my humble opinion, a son, and i did not spare a rod in training him for the great things i believe he was capable of. I remember warning him on the eve of the first attack that he was in command of a brigade and that it was his duty to see that his supply of gas, grease, and ammunition was kept up with, that there was no question of his personal courage, that his expression that i had not impressed upon him, and i remarked. Ifm serious, i told him, tomorrow i find you in a tank doing the work of a private, i will relieve you on the spot. Patton remarked to me, if i find you on a tank, the next day, patton led from on top of a tank. His chief lieutenant heard the remark and led his battalion on foot. He continues with the letter and closes with this. He goes, on july 1944 on the eve of the invasion of normandy, i read a speech by patton to his third army. In it, patton said an army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is a lot of crap. It ends with this. In 1917 and 1918, patton was an individual anxious to show his courage and impress his men with his personal daring. In an attempt to make him use his brigade as a team, he was warned against fighting as a fight as ad to brigade, not as an individual. What rockenbach gets is patton needed world war i to get that out of his system. In addition to that he was courageous, that he could lead men in combat. At the end of the war, patton writes that he believes he could now command a division in combat, and he will wait anxiously for the next war, and you all will know the rest of that story because that has been well done. But without world war i, the patton we know, the george see the george c. Scott image in front of the flag, probably does not happen. It is that experience in world war i that got him to be who he is. That concludes my remarks. Thank you. [applause] mr. Stroup for our next author, im going to start his presentation off. Who was general holland . Who was general holland . Theres no answer required from the floor, but think about that. A not very well known American General of postworld war ii, participated in korea japan and then korea. The book sheds a lot of light. Michael . Michael thank you, sir. First, i would like to thank ausa, joe craig, and roger cirillo, the university of kentucky, natalie, and katie downstairs, manning the booth. And my fellow presenters for the and my fellow presenters for the opportunity to be here today, and also especially for those of you who took time out of lunch to come here. So, to get directly to general stroups question, who was ned almond, and what we know about him . He belonged to the generation of Senior Officers who came of age in world war i. He led 10th corps in the invasion in korea. He is noted for his cando attitude, his natural aggressiveness, demanding personality, sometimes selfserving nature, qualities that later earned him the nickname, sickem ned. His early military life differed little from that of his contemporaries. Ambition and the drive to excell made almond and his peers stand out as young officers. In a career spanning 35 years in three wars, almond showed strong leadership as a Battalion Division and corps commander. He also had a reputation for aggressive ambition, impatience, racial prejudice, and insecurity. In every position almond held, he earned the respect of his superiors, including generals george c. Marshall, douglas macarthur, and matthew b. Ridgeway, hard graders all. Ok. There we go. Oops. Back up. There we go. Almond is not quite as well known today as some of his contemporaries, but he has a poor reputation among military historians. What we think we know about almond now is largely the result of one or two data points that have been repeated over and over over the past couple of decades. This book examines almond in the context of his time and finds that there is much more to almond than we think we know. Almonds racist reputation overlooks his devotion to training his troops. His relationship with macarthur gained him advancement and notoriety, but macarthurs trust was well placed. Almonds aggressive qualities earned the respect of his peers. Many incorrectly inferred a hatred of the marine corps from his conflict with one marine commander, and that myth obscured his actual antipathy for the air force. [laughter] allmans reputation may now be seen different in historical context, but he was and is undeniably controversial. His boyhood set the life and path for his military career. The Virginia Institute with its strong confederate and military influences shape his outlook. Almond graduated third in his class in 1915, but vmi cadets were not automatically commissioned then as they were today. After the United States enters a the war, however, the rapidly expanding army also quickly grew its officer corps. Almond competed for a commission in november 1916 and reported to the very first ocs class at Fort Leavenworth shortly after. He commanded the 12 machine gun battalion during and after world war i. Combat taught him some enduring lessons about the value of training which he used for the rest of his life. Almond also began to exhibit some of those professional traits that became the hallmarks of his career aggressiveness, personal courage, and commitment to his mission. Almond finished the war as a temporary major, having been awarded a citation and a wound badge, which in the reviews of army declarations during the 1920s, became a silver star and a purple heart. The years after world war i were good for almond. After an rotc pms assignment, he completed the advanced course and remained as an instructor. He taught in the tactics department, where his experiences as a machine gun Battalion Commander during the First World War caught the eye of the assistant commandant of the infantry school, Lieutenant Commander george c. Marshall. His performance their mark him as a martial man and destine him for the future success he would see. After the command general staff school, he moved to manila where he pioneered a method for crossing a river using only the battalions organic equipment. Almond began his transition to the armys Senior Leadership of attendance at the u. S. Army war college where his classmates included major omar bradley, with whom he had also taught at fort benning, william halsley, and 46 other future flag officers. After graduation, he was assigned to the War Department general staff. His love for training was rooted in his own thirst for knowledge, and he lobbied hard for the chance to attend both the air force tactical school, which is a predecessor of the air war college, and the naval war college. He did very well in all of his academic assignments, and this unfortunately earned him a teaching spot at the naval war college. He turned down that assignment in order to go back to general staff, and then the six core where he spent the last year of the war preparing for the largescale operations that he would have to mount in the next war. Almond initially made his mark on history, and we started to catch up with them, as commander of the 96th Infantry Division. One of the only two africanamerican commissions raised during world war ii and the only one that deployed and was employed as a full division. The division initially had all white officers but began to receive African American officers shortly after the division activated. They recognized almonds skills as a trainer, and that is also part of his story. No white officer sought this assignment, but having received the mission, almond threw himself into it. General marshall had recognized that commanders of black troops should be selected with even greater care than others, and almond believed he possessed the knack that marshall required. Almond harbored bigoted attitudes against africanamericans, but he was not alone in either the u. S. Military or civilian society at the time. Most contemporary Senior Leaders shared similar low opinions of black mens abilities to fight effectively. The nation itself was undeniably racist, and segregation was the law of the land. The years since that war have seen the glorification of the greatest generation with all racist notions and ideas whitewashed with a veneer of honor. Much has been made of almonds command of a black division, but little was known about the challenges he faced in commanding large africanamerican units in a racially segregated army and society. Activated 77 years tomorrow, it was split among four bases. No civilian community wanted large numbers of black soldiers in their midst, so the regiments trained individually at camp robinson, arkansas, camp atteberry in indiana, and camp breckenridge in kentucky. Almond dealt with all the normal challenges his brothers did with the additional challenges of the separation of his units and segregation of his soldiers on those posts. Many of those problems, once the unit was able to consolidate after many months of training, at the site which was chosen specifically because it was so remote from other white communities. Many of the problems that had developed, incubated in the regimental size camps, became magnified when the unit got together as a whole. In combat, the 92nd Infantry Division initially did well. Against the advice of the War Department, almond had to work very hard to get permission to deploy the division and was very much concerned about how well the soldiers would do. And he argued strenuously that they should be allowed to deploy. The division deployed to italy where it initially served well. However, it began to fall apart in the spring of 1945, and he had some Serious Problems there. By the end of the war, the 92nd Infantry Division had gained a white regiment, and the 442nd infantry, the nisei division, finished the war as the most integrated division in the army. After the war, almond was given command, thesion second Infantry Division, which was initially designated to go to japan for the invasion.