So I've seen it debated on texags before, but I can't say I've seen definitive evidence that Patton made the quote:

"Give me army full of West Pointers, and I will win a battle. Give me a handful of Aggies, and I will win a war."

I guess it is, at worst, an 'officially' sponsored rumor, since it is included in the the video below.

Experience The Spirit: Coach Sherman on the Values of Texa A&M:

http://www.aggieathletics.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/ets.html

I'd love to know that he said it of A&M, but with no factual proof, I guess we can lay claim to it as easily as anyone else!


This from wiki (hardly the bastion of historical accuracy):

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_S._Patton

No.

No.

No. What he really said is "Uncover!"

Seen by me at the VMI Bookstore circa 1998:

quote:

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Give me army full of West Pointers, and I will win a battle. Give me a handful of VMI ___ (men, boys, grads...I forget), and I will win a war.

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quote:

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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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If Patton was to be asked if he ever said the aggie statement – it would be like when General Norman Schwartzkopf was allegedly asked if he thought there was room for forgiveness toward terrorists and those who harbored them and said allegedly said:

“I believe that forgiving them is God’s function. OUR job is to arrange the Meeting.”

Schwartzkopf was asked in an interview later if he had really ever made that quote – and he said no, but he then added he sure wish he had said it.

I believe Patton would say “no I never said - "Give me army full of West Pointers, and I will win a battle. Give me a handful of Aggies, and I will win a war." – but sure wish I had.

I don't believe he actually said this but it sure looks good on the back of all those T-shirts!

ADJr - Abatt '06 - said he had played the Patton Theme about a 1000 times before he ever saw the movie.

I wish he did say it...Patton is a badace...

quote:

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he one thing no one is considering is that Patton thought like a politician. The chances are, he ran into another General from A&M and said that. Then, a few weeks later, he ran into another general from VMI and he said that. And then Clemson, etc.

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you know tons more about history than i do, but this doesn't sound at all like patton from the stuff i've seen/read.

i wrote a 20 page paper for a history class on patton and used close to 30 sources. it stated in most of them that patton thought officers from west point were far superior than any other so i doubt he really said it.

[This message has been edited by WarChief (edited 4/4/2014 7:42p).]

Put this urban myth in the folder along with "CPT Kangaroo was the bravest Marine Lee Marvin saw on Iwo Jima" Tonight Show fable. Folks really want to believe it but it just ain't true.

Kinda like all that comes out of Obama's mouth.

"Recall.....Step off on Hullabaloo..."

I just think it's interesting that there is no shred of evidene that he said, yet we put it in a video promoting the values of A&M.

"Aggies don't lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do."

I guess if you can neither confirm nor deny it, it's not a lie....

I wrote a friend of mine who has studied Patton most of his life and knows Patton's granddaughter who lives in Germany. Here is his reply:

There is NO source that says Patton said that. In fact I really doubt it. I have some 300 books about him or his men and no such quote has been found in any them.
Denny

Also more on Patton can be foundhttp://pattonthirdarmy.com/

Much as I like the quote, there is no evidence Patton ever said that about any school. We need to drop it.

aalan94 said:

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You know, the one thing no one is considering is that Patton thought like a politician. The chances are, he ran into another General from A&M and said that. Then, a few weeks later, he ran into another general from VMI and he said that. And then Clemson, etc.

He probably never said that in an actual speech or something, because he didn't want anyone calling him out on this.

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I bet this could be true. He was kind of a character. Wasn't the dude sleeping with his niece or some such?

I have offered an automatic "A" in my classes to any Aggie who can prove that Patton made that staement. In over 20 years, nobody has come through. I suspect you can find t-shirts with that quote at many military colleges across the country.

I do remember finding a quote from Patton about an Aggie General, who I believe was his artillery commander at Third Army. The quote was something to the effect that if he had more generals like him we would have won the war a lot faster.
Patton probably said similar things about a variety of generals on his staff. Similar to MacArthur if you were on Patton's staff you were a world beater and if you were on someone else's staff you were useless.

Not sure WHY the CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF would mention it in a speech if it wasn't true.

So....is he misinformed, a moron, simply preaching to the choir, or maybe it IS TRUE??

For anyone on this thread to DEFINITIVELY so "NO" is ridiculous....because they don't no fo sure either!

https://today.tamu.edu/2021/05/17/chairman-of-the-joint-chiefs-of-staff-addresses-texas-am-graduates-future-military-officers/

He said it because some Second Lieutenant speech writer wrote it for him

WBBQ74 said:

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Put this urban myth in the folder along with "CPT Kangaroo was the bravest Marine Lee Marvin saw on Iwo Jima" Tonight Show fable. Folks really want to believe it but it just ain't true.

Kinda like all that comes out of Obama's mouth.

"Recall.....Step off on Hullabaloo..."

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Nobody could hold a candle to Mr. Rogers.