Patteau was my friend. That may surprise some of you, but we were real life friends for 15+ years, I met Gene at my Arrowhead tailgate sometime in the mid 2000’s. It was the only time we ever met face to face. We hit it off at the tailgate. We only knew each other from Chiefs Planet, we were obviously totally opposites in our political views but outside of that subject, we found we had a lot in common.
We decided to stay in real life contact after the game. Over the 15+ years we kept in touch with what was happening in our real lives. We worked together many times on the packages for the troops. He gave his time and not just money to help get those packages out to the troops.
He was so proud of his daughters. He would go on about how smart they were. Both are successful in life now. They live in NY and LA and as he said so proudly, just as conservative in their views as him.
Gene went through a divorce, daughters moving to different states. Moving etc. I shared with him my son’s path, my moves, milestones etc.
And then there was Gene’s health issues. I swore to keep them to myself. Sometimes I wanted to defend him about being short or aggressive towards someone. You would be short too if you only ½ of one lung left.
At the end, Gene needed a walker to move. On oxygen all the time. Have multiple cancers in different places. Paralysis in his right arm so when he posted on the Planet. He was only able to post using his one good arm and hand.
He was still fighting all that to the end. He did not go gently into the night. He went out fighting death with everything he had. I can only hope that when my time comes, I’ll have the courage he showed.
I will miss my friend.
Gene is the one behind Stevie Ray on the left. [Reply]
Many, many, many years ago, Patteeu, Adept Havelock and I got into a heated debate in DC, about pitbulls. They were vehemently against them and my position was a pit's disposition is determined, by a large percentage, by how it was raised. Now all these years later, I accidentally ended up with a pit rescue. She is sweet, intelligent and loving. She is actually an american staffordshire terrier and my next door neighbor has a 100% pit bull. They get along famously. BUT because of that debate, we are ever vigilant on leaving her with anyone else or alone with our other dog. 60 pounds of solid muscle!! [Reply]
A real life friend told me about this thread, and although I had no plans to call on CP again I thought I would log in and pay a small tribute to patteeu. He stands out as one of the most decent, calm, intelligent, and rational people here as well as one of the most kind and charitable. He was always agreeable to speak to even when we were at odds on the subject. Pat stands out as a prime figure from the best era of CP and a man whom I would have been richer to know as a personal friend. If the internet were filled with patteeus the world would be in a much better place. He has and has always had my respect. [Reply]
I can't say anything that hasn't been said already and I certainly can't touch the connection that some of you had with him. But I will miss him more than I should for someone I've never met and only interacted with online. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Rain Man:
Another humorous story about patteeu, though you have to look past the details to see the big picture.
We were both really into wargames, and at some point we signed up to play a mega-board game about World War III. It was played on a massive board, 6' x 6' or maybe even 8' x 8', and some dude had it laid out on the floor of his guest bedroom. It was a massively complex game where you only played 10 or 12 turns, but each turn had a dozen steps and would 8 or 10 hours. We decided that we would play every Sunday for three months.
We drew lots for our roles, and I ended up being the NATO central front leader (mainland Europe), and patteeu drew NATO's southern front (Balkans, Turkey, and the Med Coast down to Egypt). We had another guy who had the northern front (Scandinavia, Britain, and the North Sea). We were taking on three other guys with similar Warsaw Pact fronts.
My opponent on the Central Front was a guy who could be kind of obnoxious, and he also had a bit of advantage in knowing the rules since it was his game. I didn't have a full grasp of the rules in Turn 1 and messed something up, and suddenly there was a breach in the Fulda Gap. We had bad weather that grounded my air forces in Turn 2, and the rout was on as his troops poured through. With no other choice, I ran away from the breach and set up strongholds in the Alps and a massive fortress in the low countries. My opponent was being pretty obnoxious about it, gloating in a manner that I didn't appreciate. Patteeu didn't appreciate that type of behavior, because he was a humble guy who was always gracious in victory or defeat.
Turn 3 rolled around and suddenly I realized that my opponent had made a major error. He was ignoring my two fortresses and pushing forward, gloating about approaching the Rhine and reaching France. But his supply lines were suddenly vulnerable.
I was chatting about this with patteeu midweek, and I mentioned that I thought I had a good chance to trap the entire invading army without supplies. So we hatched a plan.
Turn 4 rolled around and we listened to the gloating as we gathered. Then the week's activities started. My opponent kept moving into France gleefully. Patteeu was a good commander so his front was pretty stable. He also controlled a lot of B-52 forces based in Turkey. They took off, but instead of fighting on his front they headed north while his ground forces hunkered down. He pounded my opponent's supply lines. Then I unleashed hell, pincering in from my two strongholds and utterly destroying my opponent's battered supply chain. Suddenly I had his entire invading force cut off without supplies. My opponent didn't gloat at the end of the night.
The next week we went into Turn 5. My opponent tried to break through, but patteeu sent the B-52s in again, and my line easily held. When the turn ended, my opponent saw the writing on the wall. He said, "Well, it seems like maybe we're in stalemate mode. Maybe we should end the game now."
Patteeu and I leapt into action. We both strongly voted that the game should continue since we were only halfway through the game. The other three players all shrugged, so it was two against one and we kept going.
For the next three weeks, I unleashed the dogs of war on this guy. It was complete and utter destruction, executed without mercy. The obnoxious guy couldn't get his troops supplied and I hunted them down like vermin. I was able to repay patteeu's B-52s with extra troops for his front and he launched an offensive and pushed forward. Every week my opponent proposed calling off the game as a draw and every week patteeu and I would vote as a bloc to keep it going, convincing the others to vote with us.
By Turn 9, the other players finally called a mercy rule because we had obliterated the enemy, were approaching the Soviet border, and completely humbled the obnoxious guy. Patteeu and I exchanged sly smiles when they finally called it.
So did the obnoxious guy have the option of surrendering?
You probably should have dropped leaflets telling his soldiers how to surrender and spare their lives.
You would make enemies for the next few generations if you overdo it punishing the soldiers just because their commander is obnoxious.
IMHO, it would have been better to do a targeted strike taking out the obnoxious guy.
I will miss patteeu. He was a major personality here on chiefsplanet. It is cool to see that he had friendships with a lot of people here. I feel really bad that he had to deal with losing his health for as long as he did. He had smart takes on football and the Chiefs and expressed himself with class.. [Reply]
