How a new Army cyber general got George Patton’s stars

When the newest commander of the Army cyber branch’s schoolhouse prepared his dress uniform on Thursday night ahead of his promotion to major general, he was clueless of the history lesson awaiting him.

Now-Maj. Gen. Paul Stanton’s promotion to lead the Cyber Center of Excellence at Fort Gordon, Georgia, was long-coming, too. He previously commanded the service’s Cyber Protection Brigade and completed tours as Cyber Command’s current operations director and the schoolhouse’s deputy commander.

Stanton was at his kitchen table on the evening ahead of his promotion when his father, retired Army three-star and former budget director Edgar Stanton III, pulled out a letter with a sterling silver major general rank insignia pinned to it.

The letter, which Stanton shared online, explained the origin of the insignia: the stars had first belonged to the legendary, if controversial, Gen. George Patton, who received them when he took command of the 2nd Armored Division in 1942.

Patton’s widow, Beatrice Ayer, passed the stars to the general’s WWII-era operations officer — Gen. Paul Harkins — when he received his second star and took command of the 45th Infantry Division during the Korean War. Harkins went on to become the first commander of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam in 1962.

Harkins in turn gave Patton’s insignia to Maj. Gen. William Mundie, a former aide, when he took command of Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, in 1975.

Stanton’s father, who was Mundie’s aide during his tour at the helm of Army Recruiting Command, received the stars from his mentor in 2006, with instructions to pass them on to his son — should he reach the two-star rank.