Gen. Patton


Bellingham resident Kenneth Cowden has driven all kinds of big rigs: military vehicles, gravel trucks and intimidatingly large logging trucks.

But the most nerve-wracking ride of his life was driving a command car in 1943 with Gen. George Patton and French Gen. Charles de Gaulle - who would later become that country's president - in the backseat, along with several other notable military figures.

"I was loaded with brass," said the World War II veteran, who is now 88.

Cowden, a private first class in the 7th Army, was Patton's driver for the second half of 1943 during the campaign in Sicily. It's a period of his life he'll never forget, when he had unfettered access to one of the most powerful men in the war.

"He's a guy that scares you to death, of course," he said. "Gen. Patton was a big guy. I always thought of him as a real statesman. He was very disciplined. He was a great guy."

Particularly memorable, though, was that sweltering July day when he was tasked with driving Patton, de Gaulle, Gen. Hobart Gay and the others from the airfield to Patton's headquarters on a Sicilian mountaintop. They were escorted by motorcycle guards, and were passing traffic on the Sicilian roads. Cowden didn't realize it, but included in the motorcade was a car containing Gen. Omar Bradley behind him.

Patton had yelled at Cowden to slow down a couple times while he was passing a big Army wrecker, and on his third attempt to pass it, Patton stood up and smacked him on the back of the head. Cowden was so surprised that he slammed on the brakes and Patton toppled out of the car into the road.

The other car in their motorcade pulled up and Patton sat in the road talking to Bradley.

Cowden was terrified.

"I thought that was the end of it all," Cowden said. "Anybody else would've had a fit, but (Patton), never."

Not only had Patton fallen out of the car, but Cowden's hat had flown into the road as well. He felt out of uniform without it but couldn't get out to grab it.

After he finished talking with Bradley, Patton just stood up and smiled at Cowden, picked up the hat and said, "Let's go now, driver."

A few minutes later, as Cowden was driving the group up the steep, winding road to headquarters, he almost crashed when an English truck hauling two trailers came around a switchback toward him. He swerved the car of the way, hitting a cement kilometer marker and coming within inches of going off the hillside. No one said a word as he got the car back on the road and brought them safely to headquarters. Patton never mentioned it.

"He was the boss," Cowden said. "I don't think he was scared of anything."

The most devastating was the carnage of the Dachau concentration camp. He drove in the day after if was liberated and saw stacks and stacks of bodies.

"That was something I'll never forget," he said. "You see all those people, some of them you can't tell if they're dead or alive they're so skinny. You just couldn't believe it."

Despite the worst, he's never regretted his time serving, doing his duty for his country.

Cowden was chosen to bring out the first ball at Safeco Field before a Seattle Mariners game for the annual Boeing Salute to Armed Forces Day Saturday, April 21.

"It's a long walk out there," he said, smiling as he remembered the noise of the crowd as he waved the ball high in the air on the pitcher's mound. "That was quite an experience. That was fantastic."

Originally published here.