There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great World War II, you won't have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, "Well, your Granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana." No, Sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say, "Son, your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son-of-a-Goddamned-Bitch named Georgie Patton!

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great World War II, you won't have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, "Well, your Granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana." No, Sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say, "Son, your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son-of-a-Goddamned-Bitch named Georgie Patton!" in the context of "George S. Patton, Transcription of his Speech to the Third Army (June 5, 1944) in Charles M. Province, The Unknown Patton (1982) p. 32. Eyewitness to War (2006) by Antony Bird and Nicholas Bird, p. 256. Charge!: History's Greatest Military Speeches‎ (2007) by Steve Israel, p. 200." to mean that wisdom is timeless.