Robert P. Patterson
Secretary of War

Undersecretary of War Robert P. Patterson
06/05/1944
PATTERSON AT ATTERBURY AND AIR BASE HERE
Undersecretary of War Sees 106th Division in Action.
SALUTED WITH 17 GUNS
Also Greeted by Band at Air Base-Impressed by Attaboys.

No, Not Eleanor

The visit of Undersecretary of War Robert P. Patterson to Camp Atterbury was a well-kept secret and only a handful of the top military men knew that he was expected. After his arrival, however, at least one trickle of the news got out: A girl called an Evening Republican reporter to inquire if he knew how she could gain admittance to Atterbury Army Air field. She explained that she had heard Mrs. Roosevelt, wife of the President, was visiting there.

Undersecretary of War Robert P. Patterson visited Camp Atterbury and Saturday observed units of the 106th Division convert a quiet Bartholomew county hillside into an artillery-torn, bullet-swept battlefield. Undersecretary Patterson, one of the top dignitaries to visit the Hoosier military post, was accompanied by a party including Judge Samuel I. Rosenman, special counsel to President Roosevelt; Senator Raymond Willis of Indiana, and Indiana Representatives Earl Wilson of the Ninth district, Forrest Harness of the Fifth, and Gerald Landis of the Seventh.
The undersecretary of war's party also visited Atterbury Army Air field here, where the undersecretary was greeted by a 17-gun salute and music by an Atterbury military band.

'Great Performance'
"It was a great performance." Mr, Patterson declared after seeing the soldiers of the 106th Division go through their paces. "This is enough to show anyone the enormous firepower in the hands of American infantry." Army personnel present for the demonstration staged by the 106th Division units included Maj. Gen Alan W. Jones, commander of the division; Brig. Gen. Leo T. McMahon, commander of the division's artillery; Col. Welton M. Modisette, Atterbury commander, and Maj. R. Froncillo, aide to Undersecretary Patterson. The visit of Mr. Patterson, undersecretary to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, was a well-kept, secret because of security reasons and immediate publication of the visit was withheld. Secretary Stimson, Undersecretary of War Patterson and Gen George C. Marshall, chief of staff, constitute the War council of the nation's War department. During the nation's preparedness program, Patterson was delegated all duties with procurement of munitions for the Army.

Details of Mr. Patterson's visit to Atterbury were revealed by the camp public relations department Sunday.

Everything But Kitchen Sink.

The demonstration, conducted on the Camp Atterbury military reservation gave convincing evidence of the terrific firepower an American infantry battalion can put up in its own defense. Everything from .30-caliber tracer bullets to 105 mm artillery fire was thrown into the display, and at one point the undersecretary and his party were startled by a simulated shell burst only a few yards from their vantage point.

During the morning, Mr. Patterson saw the 589th Field Artillery battalion conduct a precision fire problem. In the course of which three batteries adjusted fire with the aid of an artillery liaison plane, which flew over the party while "walking" or directing the shell bursts onto the target, just visible some thousands of yards away.

Sees 'Enemy Attack'

After luncheon in the field the undersecretary's party was driven in jeeps to a battalion observation post, crowning a hill overlooking the valley through which an "enemy" attack was expected. The "battle" was opened by the 423rd Infantry regiment as a 100-pound charge of TNT ripped a path through a mine field. Flare signals high overhead then brought down the entire firepower of the battalion. Camouflaged riflemen and machine gunners opened up first, then mortar shells splattered into the valley and finally anti-tank cannon and howitzers, located respectively on the flanks and far to the rear, came into play. Artillery shells whistled overhead and burst with earth-shaking detonations in the field of fire.
PATTERSON, ROBERT P.
Captain, U.S. Army
306th Infantry Regiment, 77th Division, A.E.F.
Date of Action: August 14, 1918
General Orders No. No. 35, W.D., 1920

Citation:

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Robert P. Patterson, Captain, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Bazoches, France, August 14, 1918.

Captain Patterson, accompanied by two noncommissioned officers, made a daring daylight reconnaissance into the enemy lines. He surprised an enemy outpost of superior numbers and personally destroyed the outpost.

Later he again had an encounter with another outpost, during which several of the enemy were killed or wounded and one member of his patrol wounded. The enemy advanced their outposts, and Captain Patterson covered the retreat of his patrol, during which he dropped into a depression and feigned being killed in order to escape capture. Here he lay until he was able to escape to his lines under cover of darkness.

Born in Glens Falls, New York, on February 12, 1891, he received his education from Union College and Harvard Law School, where he was President of the Law Review.

Patterson relocated to New York City where he practiced law from 1915 until he was appointed a US District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York in 1930. In 1939 he was appointed a judge on the US Circuit Court of Appeals.

At the outbreak of World War I, he volunteered for military service and went to France in April 1918, assigned to Company F, 306th Infantry Regiment. He served in various departments and in the Oise-Aisne and Meuse-Argonne offensives and was twice cited in general orders for gallant and meritorious service "in utter disregard of personal danger."

At Bazoches, August 14, 1918, while making a daring daylight reconnaissance into enemy lines, he surprised and destroyed an enemy outpost and attacked another, killing and wounding several of the enemy. Later he was forced to retreat and in order to escape capture, dropped into a depression and feigned death, remaining there until nightfall when he escaped to his own lines. For heroism in this action, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. He was wounded in action on August 16, 1918 and was awarded the Purple Heart. In March 1919 he was promoted to Major.

He returned to the United States in April 1919, was mustered out of the Army and resumed his law practice in New York.

In 1940 he was appointed Assistant Secretary of War. In just a few months be became the first U.S. Under Secretary of War. In this role, he supervised procurement and contracted for the delivery of over $100,000,000,000 worth of supplies and equipment, the largest amount of business ever done by a single organization in the history of the world and was also largely responsible for the desegregation of the Army. This is something he had aimed at all those years and was one of his proudest achievements. He then served as Secretary of War from 1945-47, and played an important role in the unification of the Armed Forces and the creation of the Department of  Defense.

Secretary Patterson died, while on a private business trip, in a commercial airliner crash on January 22, 1952 and was buried in Section 30 of Arlington National Cemetery. His wife, Margaret T. Winchester Patterson, died on May 28, 1988 and was laid to rest with him.