General George Smith Patton, Jr. came into this world as a baby on November 11, 1885, and left this world a legend on December 25, 1945(Stokesbury 199). General Patton was many things on this earth, including a soldier, general, pilot, athlete, father, hero and legend(Kay).
             During the early years of Patton's life, he was very uneducated and didn't learn how to read until he was 12. This big blemish did not hold him back from becoming the one goal he set for himself, a hero. At the age of 12 he was sent to Stephen Cutter Clark's Classical School where he began to catch up on all of the academics he had fallen behind on(Kay). He then attended Virginia Military Institute for one year and then transferred and graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point("Biography of General..."). At the Military Academy, Patton met his future wife, Beatrice Ayer. The two were married on May 26, 1910. The couple had three children together, Beatrice, Ruth Ellen, and George Smith Patton IV(James 588). In 1912, Patton represented the United States in the Summer Olympics. He participated in the Pentathlon, where he placed 5th. Patton was different then the rest of the competitors, he decided to use a .38 handgun during the pistol shooting, which is the reason to believe he was penalized, because one of the bullets that he fired passed through a previous bullet hole("Biography of General..."). These early years began to set the foot steps for a great and illustrious military career.
             Patton's inspiration for becoming a military leader came from the stories that his parents would tell him as a young child. These stories told of his great ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War, the War with Mexico, and the Civil War. Hearing these stories made Patton want to become a hero and legend in the United States. He had no further to look then to his own family for the origin of his gre...