Right Stuff Patton the Right Essay

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Indeed, the cantankerous and authoritarian general would operate with what was necessarily a sense of his individual capacity to lead his men into battle. To Patton, leadership does require some degree of extraordinary confidence, if not outright vanity, if one is to engage organizational goals with the sense of entitlement to exact decisions impacting the lives of so man. Such is also true if one is to contend with the constant challenges, setbacks and opponents inevitable when in command of so many people and policies. However, as his comments show, it is Patton's position that the leader should never view himself as removed from any degree of labor relevant to these goals. As it were, he suggests that the great and natural leader will take as much proprietary pride in getting his hands dirty as in offering administrative oversight. This is the equation that figures into the 'right stuff,' with a sense of his importance measured by an understanding of the physical and actual responsibilities demanded of him. Like the astronauts, his vanity as a leader would be justified by his bravery in taking a mantle many might consider unenviable.

And certainly, returning to the CMG biography, there is evidence to believe that Patton practiced what he preached. Accordingly, Patton's early service as a tank brigadier general in France during World War I showed him to be an intimately engaged authority, whose innovate leadership techniques reflect the balance noted above. In September of 1918, entering into battle operations, "Patton had worked out a plan where he could be in the front lines maintaining communications with his rear command post by means of pigeons and a group of runners. Patton continually exposed himself to gunfire and was shot once in the leg while he was directing the tanks.
" (CMG, 2) to this extent, it is clear that Patton's leadership was all the more credible by his willingness to take on the same risks as those at the hierarchical bottom of his charge.

Still, importantly to the philosophy evident in Patton's approach, there is something crucial to distinguishing one's self in the role of leadership. For Patton, according to some who knew him, this was a natural outcome of his singular personality. Certainly, in our understanding of Patton and of his accomplishments, it seems apparent that in some, the proclivity toward leadership is a natural outcome of certainly personal dispositions. Campbell (2006) writes about an interview with a veteran who served under Patton. According to the man who fought in the Battle of Bulge under Patton's command, "He was a real showboat, that guy, crazy, a show off, but he knew what he was doing... He talked to the group, said 'Hello,' but he was tough guy to get near." (Campbell, 1) Again, in Patton we can see that difficult balance where the distance and individuality required to be considered heroic in duty and remarkable in leadership is attained effectively. It is here that his claim to the 'right stuff' should be considered influential and exemplary.

Works Cited

Campbell, Al. (2006). Still Secure, Patton's Christmas Day Fair Weather Prayer of '44. General George S. Patton, Jr. Online at http://www.generalpatton.com/viewheadline.php?id=4164.

CMG Estates. (2006); Biography of General Patton. General George S. Patton, Jr. Online at http://www.generalpatton.com/biography.html.

Patton, George S.. (1947). War as I Knew it. Houghton-Mifflin.

Wolfe, T. (1979). The Right Stuff. Farrar, Straus & Giroux......

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