<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>Ahhh, the memories . . .</div><div><br></div><div>Whem I was in the Army, assigned to Headquarters Company, VII Corps (Kelley Barracks - Stuttgart, Germany), during the years 1977-1982, the Deputy Commanding General for VII Corps was Patton’s son . . . and the mayor of Stuttgart was Rommel’s son.</div><div><br></div><div>Remind me to share some memories with you of VII Corps field training exercises in which both General Patton and Mayor Rommel participated. </div><div><br></div><div>Courtesy of the November 21, 1978 edition of the Washington Post at:</div><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/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/11/21/patton-and-rommel-the-friendly-generation/88b2ac9d-c839-4e86-91ee-4d794bc862d8/</a></div><div><br></div><div>————————————————-</div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; 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;">Patton and Rommel - The Friendly Generation</span></div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 3pt 0in 12pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">Patton and Rommel are alive and well and working in Stuttgart.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 3pt 0in 12pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 3pt 0in 12pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 3pt 0in 12pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 3pt 0in 12pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">The mayor knows if there is a problem all he's got to do is pick up the phone.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 3pt 0in 12pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 3pt 0in 12pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">He has stuck his political neck out several times for Americans here.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 3pt 0in 12pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 3pt 0in 12pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 3pt 0in 12pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">Still, in each city and many smaller towns one still finds a few bars, discothesques or private clubs with "off-limits" signs to GIs.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 3pt 0in 12pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">In Amberg, a relatively small town, Spec. 4 joel Bogar, a black soldier, claims, "We are treated like animals."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 3pt 0in 12pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 3pt 0in 12pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">Still, in a small German town, the culture shock of the American GI is extraordinary for conservative German farmers and the American.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 3pt 0in 12pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">"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.</span></p></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/">http://www.moscowcares.com/</a></div><div><br></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>“A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met.”</div><div>- Roy E. Stolworthy</div><div></div></div></body></html>