Promotion of Patton to Colonel and Command of the 5th Cavalry

On 24/07/1938, George S. Patton Jr. was promoted to the permanent rank of colonel in the United States Army and simultaneously assumed command of the 5th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Clark, Texas. The appointment followed his service as Director of Instruction at the Cavalry School at Fort Riley, Kansas, which he held from August 1937 until July 1938. The promotion returned Patton to regimental command in the peacetime Army, placing him in charge of a horse cavalry unit stationed near Brackettville in Kinney County, southwest Texas. Patton arrived at Fort Clark on 24/07/1938 and began leading the regiment during a period when the U.S. Army still maintained traditional mounted cavalry formations. Contemporary records from Fort Clark note that he took up quarters designated for the regiment’s commanding officer and quickly began organizing training and routine regimental duties. His command lasted approximately six months, from July to December 1938, before he was reassigned to Fort Myer, Virginia, to command the 3rd Cavalry Regiment. The brief tenure nevertheless marked his last command of a horse cavalry regiment before his later transition into armored warfare leadership.