The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941 Quotes

“the Army saw slang as a morale builder no matter how cynical it became.”
― Paul Dickson, The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941: The Forgotten Story of How America Forged a Powerful Army Before Pearl Harbor

“Of the first million men screened by draft boards in 1940, at least 130,000 were rejected for severe disabilities relating to malnutrition.”
― Paul Dickson, The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941: The Forgotten Story of How America Forged a Powerful Army Before Pearl Harbor

“Without question, however, the single most important hardware innovation to make its debut in the 1941 maneuvers was the portable runway dubbed the Marston Mat.”
― Paul Dickson, The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941: The Forgotten Story of How America Forged a Powerful Army Before Pearl Harbor

“Somehow, Ewing was able to confirm what had been rumor when the maneuvers ended in late September 1941. Patton had indeed bought gasoline with his own money, and both General Walter Krueger and Colonel Dwight Eisenhower had called a foul on him, which was upheld by the referees. His victory in the battle of Shreveport was negated. Ewing noted that for a “long time” it was not fully revealed that Patton had left cash at filling stations along the route, with orders to attendants to “give any of my vehicles all the gas they want and keep the change.”
― Paul Dickson, The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941: The Forgotten Story of How America Forged a Powerful Army Before Pearl Harbor

“Undeniably, the bold actions of Patton and his tankers in Europe had been developed and rehearsed in the United States. Dubbing his desert training center “Little Libya” allowed him to turn metaphor into reality, when he drove his troops 1,200 miles across Libya to Tripoli, which he entered in January 1943.”
― Paul Dickson, The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941: The Forgotten Story of How America Forged a Powerful Army Before Pearl Harbor

“The importance of Marshall’s pre–Pearl Harbor leadership is impossible to ignore. To cite one dynamic example, fully three-quarters (more than 45,000) of the Army’s lieutenants and captains who fought in all theaters of World War II were graduates of the Officer Candidate Schools he fought so hard to establish before the United States entered the war, in the face of strong opposition from both Roosevelt and Stimson.”
― Paul Dickson, The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941: The Forgotten Story of How America Forged a Powerful Army Before Pearl Harbor

“One defense expert, writing for the International News Service, noted that the final cost of bringing a soldier into the 1941 maneuvers, over and above the cost of keeping that same man in camp for the same amount of time, was approximately $ 22. He added: “That’s probably the cheapest cost there has ever been for turning camp soldiers into field soldiers. And it’s field soldiers that you fight wars with.” 33”
― Paul Dickson, The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941: The Forgotten Story of How America Forged a Powerful Army Before Pearl Harbor