<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>I was assigned to Headquarters Company, VII Corps from December 1977 to April 1982.</div><div><br></div><div>I, and everybody else, was aware that Patton’s son was Deputy Commanding General of VII Corps . . . and that Rommel’s son was mayor of Stuttgart. Surprisingly, it wasn’t a major topic of discussion.</div><div><br></div><div>I browsed the internet and came across this article. How else would you believe me?</div><div><br></div><div>You jus’ know these guys shared a few beers back then.</div><div><br></div>Courtesy of the November 21, 1978 edition of the <i>Washington Post</i> at:<div><br></div><div><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/11/21/patton-and-rommel-the-friendly-generation/88b2ac9d-c839-4e86-91ee-4d794bc862d8/?utm_term=.f0095e98f99c">https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/11/21/patton-and-rommel-the-friendly-generation/88b2ac9d-c839-4e86-91ee-4d794bc862d8/?utm_term=.f0095e98f99c</a><br><div><br></div><div>———————————————</div><div><br></div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: PostoniWide, "Bodoni 72", "Bodoni MT", Didot, "Didot LT STD", "Hoefler Text", Garamond, Georgia, serif; font-size: 46.599998474121094px; font-weight: bold; word-spacing: -0.9319999814033508px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Patton and Rommel - The Friendly Generation</span></div><div><br></div><div><div>Patton and Rommel are alive and well and working in Stuttgart.</div><div><br></div><div>Manfred Rommel, the son of Germany's most famous World War II field marshal, is the mayor of this industrial city that is home to thousands of American GIs.</div><div><br></div><div>Maj. Gen. George S. Patton, the son of the most famous U.S. field general in Europe in World War II, is deputy commander of the U.S. Army's 7th Corps headquartered here.</div><div><br></div><div>The two have known each other and been friends for 20 years. They share a common birthday Dec. 24th, and the friendship, Patton says, "I like to think, has had some favorable impact" on GI-German relations in the community.</div><div><br></div><div>The mayor knows if there is a problem all he's got to do is pick up the phone.</div><div><br></div><div>Rommel is a liberal within West Germany's conservative Christian Democratic Party and one of the most thoughtful men in German politics, though he is unlikely to emerge in the federal spotlight.</div><div><br></div><div>He has stuck his political neck out several times for Americans here.</div><div><br></div><div>In 1975, some German night clubs would not accept black GIs and Rommel shut them down. "Since then, we've had no problem with clubs or discrimination," he says.</div><div><br></div><div>Then dozens of Stuttgart taxi drivers converged on the mayors house after a driver had been stabbed by a young GI. The drivers refused to transport blacks anymore and Rommel threatened to withdraw their licenses. The soldier, he said, turned out to be white.</div><div><br></div><div>Still, in each city and many smaller towns one still finds a few bars, discothesques or private clubs with "off-limits" signs to GIs.</div><div><br></div><div>In Amberg, a relatively small town, Spec. 4 joel Bogar, a black soldier, claims, "We are treated like animals."</div><div><br></div><div>But in that same town, 160 German families take part in a project to open their homes to GIs for visits. In Illesheim, not far away, 90 German landlords cut rents of GI family tenants to ease the dollar pinch.</div><div><br></div><div>Still, in a small German town, the culture shock of the American GI is extraordinary for conservative German farmers and the American.</div><div><br></div><div>"It's not just blacks with wide-brim floppy hats, long coats and dark glasses," says an infantry captain. "Now it's whites who are into the cowboy thing, chewing tobacco and with big hats, too. It's like a guy wearing lederhosen arriving in downtown Dallas."</div></div><div><br></div><div>——————————————-<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></body></html>