At 19 He Drove Churchill and Patton: The Remarkable Story of Sam Carson

GRANITE CITY, Ill. — At 19, Sam Carson left Granite City as a paratrooper and, by July 1945, was in Berlin during the tense days surrounding the Potsdam Conference. In an archival interview from 1989, Carson recounted being assigned to chauffeur several of the Allied leaders who were shaping postwar Europe.

From Paratrooper to Personal Driver

Though he did not yet hold a civilian driver's license, Carson was tapped to drive high-profile figures including U.S. War Secretary Henry Stimson, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Gen. George S. Patton. The assignment came amid the chaos and urgency of the immediate postwar period, when military personnel were often asked to fill roles beyond their training.

"I never told them anything," Carson recalled. "I was enjoying myself."

Carson remembered Patton — famed for his aggressive battlefield persona — as surprisingly soft-spoken. "He was small in stature, and he had a voice that sounded like a little old lady," Carson said. On one drive along the Autobahn, Patton asked Carson to slow to 35 mph. Before Carson could react, Stimson, seated in the back, told Patton, "Georgie, my driver knows how fast to take this car. Go ahead, driver."

Months later Patton died after a vehicle accident near Heidelberg; Carson had no involvement in that crash. After the war, Carson returned to Granite City and worked for many years as a custodian at Webster School, where students remembered him fondly even if they knew little of his wartime brushes with famous figures. He died in 1992 at age 67.

This story captures a small, human moment amid the vast upheaval of World War II's aftermath — a reminder that history's most consequential meetings were attended by ordinary people whose lives intersected with great figures in unexpected ways.