History Channel
I am being interviewed and the Patton jeep videoed on Thursday by the History Channel. They have a thing on Wednesdays about famous cars. Mine will be shown on August 17th. What did you think of my crazy ideas for a restaurant? I will get back to you. Milt Long
Frank, the History Channel made a shoot yesterday for the August 17th "cars of famous people" TV show. They said I had the only WWII jeep restored to look like General George S. Patton's war time vehicle. In addition, it is outfitted with all the equipment and I portray the general and my son Roger portrays M/Sgt John Mims the driver.
Thanks, Milton Long
Frank, last Thursday the film crew spent the entire day here in Columbus and they taped an interview and my WWII Patton jeep with my son Roger as my driver. I am very proud to be a part of their program. It will air on August 17th. The History Channel people found that my jeep restored to look like General Patton's and complete with all the equipment was the one and only in the USA. They have a program on Wednesday’s about famous cars of history. Milt Long
Great story. I didn’t get to that beach until on my way home in 1946. I lost two of my best friends on D-Day and I just wanted to visit the place they died. I felt a guilty pain as I walked that beach. I was tossed out of cadets on April 1st 1944 and returned to the ground forces. I was lucky to get assigned to an armored division because I know a lot of the former cadets and ASTP students were sent to England as replacements for the invasion. I was never sorry that I missed the invasion because fate had decided that I wouldn’t go overseas until October 1944. By the same token, I could feel for those that landed that day and how they must have felt. Fate picked some of us to live through WWII and over 60 years since. It is our job to be sure that people remember the high price that was paid for the freedom we enjoy today. Thanks for the story. Milt Long
Now, he did it again. He put into words what so many of us felt then and now. I had the honor, yes great honor, to escort FDR on my motorcycle, through Fort Knox in 1943. It was special because I was picked and for the pleasure of seeing the President. We even had dinner with him at the officers mess and he shook hands with each of us. Here was the man we would gladly die for and for which this country owed so much. We were in Germany on that day in 1945. We had liberated the POW camp at Hammelburg and were headed for Nurnburg and Stalag VIIa at Moosburg. What I remember most about that day in 1943 was how tired the president looked, but he still had the time to meet the soldiers that were present. I Had the position on the drivers side of the car and I thought I would reach over and shake the President’s hand, his dog, Fala, growled at me and I pulled my hand back. I think that Frank Wike, Jr’s dad was one of the cooks that help make the meal that we all ate that day. At the time of the Presidents death we were moving so fast that it is hard to remember how we felt. The troops were interested in getting the war over so that we all could go home. Yes, this victory would be for him, a monument to his leadership of this great country. Yes we were united in a way that we will never see again. God bless our troops and America. Milton Long
Milt Long's account of his "moments" with FDR was really fascinating...I Only saw FDR once, in 1935 I believe. He was doing the downtown drive-through in Los Angeles and we school kids (yep, "Santa Monica Boulevard Elementary School") had been bused down there to watch him drive by in that 4-door top-down touring car he preferred for such occasions...HE Whizzed by with that panama hat jauntily tilted, and the long cigarette holder in traditional "at the ready"...I Never forgot him...HECK, I was 10 years old and my eyeballs were poppin' out at the president...YEARS Later, 1947, as an Army Crypto guy, I was on duty at the white house (I was out of the pentagon/department of Army code room back then) while Harry Truman sailed on the USS Missouri to Brazil for a state visit...THE Crypto office then was in the east wing and with him gone there was nothing to do...SO I used some white house stationery to write my mom a letter...IT'S On my desk now, framed. You know, somebody says, "Hey Ellis, did you really do that or just think you did?" And I've got that letter...LIFE Is good. "Doc" Ellis
Published in U S Legacies Magazine August 2005
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