Last month (June 2008), Wayne Wickert, his son Wayne Jr. and grandsons Matthew and Bradley Wickert and I went on this tour, sponsored by the Stephen Ambrose Tour Company. We assembled in Paris and were joined by ten others and two tour directors: retired Brigadier General Raymond Bell and Kevin Hymel, associate editor of ARMY magazine and a walking encyclopedia of all things relating to General Patton.

We toured the American cemetery at Omaha Beach, saw Pointe du Hoc, went to that marvelous image of medieval man at Mont-Saint-Michel. Then we went east, through much of the territory covered by the 10th Armored during the war, including Reims, Metz, Luxembourg City, Bastogne and Heidelberg. We also visited the cemetery in Hamm, Luxembourg, where General Patton is buried.

In Trier, we had an opportunity to meet Helen Patton, granddaughter of General Patton. She is married to a German/surgeon, has two children and is very happy with her life in Germany.

We also saw the sight of the fatal car/truck accident which resulted in General Patton's death in December of l945. I had always had some doubts as to whether it really was an "accident", knowing that General Patton's views about continuing the war against Russia were not in conformance with his superiors. But Kevin Hymel erased my doubts, saying that Patton's decision to go hunting that day was a last minute affair, with stops along the way to visit some ruins. So it is highly unlikely that the accident could have been prearranged.

One of our tour participants made a DVD of our trip, and I will bring it with me to our next reunion for those of you who wish to see it.

-Phil Burge