General George Patton Museum reopens today: 'Get reacquainted with heroes'

After nine months, the General George Patton Museum is laying out its welcome mat today over a newly poured and covered walkway as officials invite visitors inside to enjoy the facility upgrades and all the museum has to offer.

While there, visitors can get to know the museum's namesake, because he's probably not who you think he is, says Alice Hart, director of the museum.

"If you've watched Patton the movie or read about him in history, there's a kind of 'Patton-on-a-pedestal' idea, but that is not the full picture," Hart said. "There's this great heroic figure, but he was a man just like any other man, except that he had an incredible drive to live a life of purpose -- to live out what he felt was his destiny."

While Patton's insistence that he was destined to lead men in a glorious battle may seem surreal to some, the facts at the museum present a down-to-earth man whose determination conquered many obstacles along the way.

Hart posits that the truth is more heroic than anything Hollywood has conjured.

"Patton was a far more complicated individual than he is commonly known to be. Most people [picture] Patton exactly how he wanted to be pictured," said Nathan Jones, museum curator, of the WWII field commander whose practiced persona was designed to display calm during chaos. "They understand him to be the character that George C. Scott made him out to be in the film, but that was all show. There was much more to the man."

To understand Patton, says Jones, you must understand something of the men and women who made up what's come to be known as "the greatest generation."

"The Patton museum is a bridge between what we know of Patton and that generation, and the community today," said Jodi Witt, museum educator. "It's not only looking at Patton as an example of a leader, but to tell the whole story. His initiatives were pivotal in the Army's move toward armor, but it was also [his Soldiers'] perseverance in [carrying out] what he felt was needed."

Witt added that Patton's drive to become the best and to influence events in his lifetime is something inherent in most individuals and especially young people who seek someone worthy of emulation.

"We used to have heroes, and we don't have heroes today, at least not in the same way. What does it mean to have heroes -- to be a man or woman of purpose in our society?" she asked. "We hope the American public develops a greater understanding of the Army specifically and the military in general -- for the American way of life in the past and what [we] are doing to protect that today."

Patton was a dichotomy of sorts, according to Jones.

"He was deeply loved by the Soldiers who served under him, and he was an emotionally driven person who was deeply religious and openly cried in front of his staff," Jones said. "He hated to see his Soldiers shot up, but forced himself to visit them in the hospital. Loss really got to him as is evident in his private writing and [some] of his poetry."

Perhaps the greatest evidence of the notoriously hard general's mercy remains shrouded in the accident that would eventually lead to his death.

"There are two reasons the conspiracy theories persist about Patton," Jones posits. "There was never an autopsy done on his body, and the police re- port was never completed. Patton ordered the investigations stopped in order to protect the lives and careers of the two Soldiers whose [reckless driving] caused the accident that caused his demise. Probably one of the most empathetic things you could do is to forgive [the Soldiers] on your deathbed."

The Soldiers' names were never revealed.

"It's because of Patton's mercy that we don't have their names today," said Jones. "We don't know their names because Patton wanted it that way."