Is this a true quote? If so, do you happen to know the context?

quote:

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"Give me an army of West Point graduates, and I will win a battle. Give me a handful of Texas Aggies, and I will win a war."

– Gen. George S. Patton

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Nope.

quote:

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The quote has been emblazoned on T-shirts, posters and most recently a banner used to taunt Army players and fans at the Sept. 16 football game in San Antonio.

Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.'s words are a testament to Aggie spirit and strength: "Give me an army of West Point graduates and I'll win a battle. Give me a handful of Texas Aggies and I'll win a war!"

Mike Province, however, isn't so sure that Patton ever uttered the words. As founder and president of The Patton Society, Province owns every General Patton book, magazine, movie, poster and voice recording in existence. He has penned three Patton books of his own, and he estimates that his collection of Patton memorabilia is the second largest in the world, only behind that of the Patton family themselves.

"I've gotten e-mails and questions regarding that quote for several years," Province said. "People will use it with Texas Aggies, The Citadel, Virginia Military Institute and even Clemson. All of these schools want to be linked to Patton."

Province has hunted specifically for the quotation for years, but has yet to uncover any evidence connecting it to Patton.

"I've even gone to the Library of Congress and looked through the Patton Papers when they were released in 1990," Province said. "I've yet to see that statement written down with any specific date or time."

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http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2006/10/02/Aggielife/Traditionally.Speaking-2319058.shtml

Thanks! It's even on the Corps' website and aggietraditions' website, and I'm sure others.

quote:

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and most recently a banner used to taunt Army players and fans at the Sept. 16 football game in San Antonio.

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yeah, i made that banner with some of my buddies.

He may never have said it but we all know it's the freaking truth.

I believe it is true that Patton had staff officers and commanders under him who were Ags, and that he admired.

The old knowledge question states that 18,000 Ags served in WWII (though I've seen that number as high as 21,000). About 16.1 million served at some point in WWII. So if you saw someone in uniform, there was a 1 in 900 chance that person was an Aggie.

When you take it to officers, the officer to enlisted ratio was about 1:10, so 1.61 million officers, of whom about 12,000 were Ags.

So if you saw an officer, the chance that he was an Aggie was about 1 in 134.

He may not have said it. But he should have.

Ultimately, it being impossible to prove a negative, I say, Print away, CC Creations!

quote:

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I believe it is true that Patton had staff officers and commanders under him who were Ags, and that he admired.

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One of his tank commanders was an Ag who I had the pleasure of knowing...... he loved Patton and said Patton loved A&M, so while the quote may not be accurate, I think the spirit of it resonates!

Heck, my door plaque as a senior even said this:

quote:

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Patton would have been a BQ!

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I never felt the need to back it up. It was all so obvious!!!

Nah...

Everyone knows Patton would have been a Cav Jock and probably would have seen bullring quite a few times as well!

As much as this former BQ hates to admit it, Patton would have been in a Cav outfit at A&M (back when it was all Army and outfits were divided by branch). After all, didn't he commission Cavalry and ride for the USA in the Olympics in Equestrian?

I think it's somewhat weird to print a quote attributed to a man who never said such a thing, even if people do wish he had said, or think he would have said it if prompted correctly.

But, as long as we can make that shirt, how about this one:

"Hook'em Horns!"

-Joseph Stalin

I mean, there isn't an proof he didn't say it, soooo.....

Think about what Patton could have done for uniforms. The representation in the movie of the tanker uniform he designed with the gold football helmet....

Pink pants heck!?!?!?!

This is kind of like the General Schwartzkopf quote - when asked if he thought there was room for forgiveness toward the people who have harbored and abetted the terrorists who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks on America.

The General said " I believe that forgiving them is God's Function. OUR job is to arrange the meeting."

Schwartzkopf was asked in an interview if he really said this - his answer was "no I did not say it, but I wish I had."

So, after i made the banner and held it up at the army game....The commandant of cadets contacted my CO and told him to find proof of the quote. Apparently, GVA had to write a letter of apology to the Army commandant. before he wrote the letter, he had us research the quote to find if it was true or not.

So, I've actually done a lot of research on the subject. I talked to the curator of the Corps Center, and a couple of other people about it. The aforementioned said that she spoke with members of Patton's staff (several of which were Aggies) who said that the quote sounded like something Patton would say. But the curator phrased it best when she said, "It wasn't like Patton was going to hold a press conference and make this statement. It would have probably been said offhand." makes sense.

And , anyway, we know he was THINKING it.

Something else to keep in mind is that Patton was a huge polo player (being a cavalry man), which would have given him a significant common interest with many Aggies of the day (the polo fields got their name from somewhere, afterall)...so it is not an unreasonable deductive leap the think that he could have made this comment over a few cocktails after a polo match with some of his Aggie buds.