George Patton's Secret...

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http://web.archive.org/web/20050226083917/www.pattonhq.com/textfiles/resign.html

Patton's Secret: "I Am Going to Resign From the Army."

by Robert S. Allen

(Robert S. Allen, a cavalry officer with service in the Regular Army, National Guard, and Army Reserve, was General Patton's chief of combat intelligence. He was promoted to colonel on General Patton's recommendation and was twice personally decorated by him. He originated the book, Washington Merry-Go-Round (1931), and the subsequent daily column of the same name, and wrote Lucky Forward, a best-seller history of the Third Army, commanded by Patton. Colonel Allen was co-author of the daily syndicated column, "Inside Washington.")

Before he was fatally injured in an auto crash, General George S. Patton had decided to dramatically resign from the Army with a characteristically spectacular statement that be was taking this unusual step, "to be free to live my own way of life."

This plan of the famed World War II combat commander can now be told for the first time, more than 25 years after his tragic death.

As a 61-year-old West Pointer with more than 30 years of active service, including command of his country's first tank force in World War I, Patton was eligible to retire as a four-star general. As a retired officer, he would have continued to be subject to military discipline and control.

So Patton had privately made up his mind to cut all ties with the Army by resigning as a resounding rebuke to superiors for relieving him of command of his beloved Third Army because of an outspoken comment in reply to a provocative question at a press conference....