This book was first published in 1992. The work is a remarkable look at WWII flying in the Mediterranean. The winner of the 1953 Ohiohana book award for Chikara! is at his best in this aviation story. Ferdie Pacheco, M.D., The Flight of the Doctor on TV, presented valuable ideas in the making of this book, which received many laudatory reviews.

"Patton and the Mountain Man" is fiction, make no mistake about it, but it is fiction based on fact. My curiosity had for years been peaked by the unusual circumstances surrounding the General's strange demise, the undecently rapid burial, the absence of investigative reports, accident reports. No autopsy, and the undue haste to bury the body in Europe and cover up all details. When Senator (Balaban) who was the MP Lieutenant first to arrive on the scene, reopened Patton's file, he found to his dismay, that his accident report on the scene had been "disappeared." Later, I came across the fact that the gold the SS had stolen from the Jews, and stockpiled in banks in Switzerland, had been re-stolen a bit at a time and moved to Lisbon. Then came the flood of 'inside' information when the USSR fell apart, and then books were open to western eyes. There, clear as a bell, were the facts that had made Patton so antsy to rearm the German Army, and to stonewall the Russians in 1946. They were indeed on the move, as Patton claimed. Clear plans for the invasion of all of Europe, and the United States, via Alaska with Chinese human wave, to begin in 1950, was signed by Joseph Stalin. Patton was right The United States need to shut him up. They couldn't . Patton had no place to go. He couldn't come home, retire, and live on his reputation. His wife had caught him in a 3 year laison with his own niece. He was forbidden to come home. McArthur certainly did not want him in the Paciffic. One Prima Donna per theater of operations was enough. He was stuck in Europe. My book is based on conclusions I reached when all of the information became available. It is NOT FACT. It is my personal conjecture fit into a combat story. One day, the true story of General Patton's assassination will become known. By then, no one will care. Ferdie Pachecho MD