John Waters became a prisoner of war, as did hundreds of other uniformed personnel, during the 1943 conflict at Kasserine Pass, Tunisia. Their capture, and devastating loss, was the result of the first meeting of American forces against German Field Marshall, Erwin Rommel. Waters capture, and the misguided leadership of American forces, greatly upset his father-in-law, General George S. Patton, Jr. Two years later, General Patton took command of the U.S. Third Army, pushing with lightening speed into Germany. Once across the Rhine, Allied Supreme Command ordered him to hold. This inactivity spun Patton’s tactical genius into gear for intelligence reports indicated his son-in-law sat within a POW camp, not forty miles away, in the outskirts of Hammelburg. Fear spread that the Germans would execute prisoners rather than let them repatriate. Patton decided to free John Waters, and the others, by forming a clandestine task force labeled ‘Operation Baum’ after Captain Abraham Baum, chosen to lead the rescue mission, a mission froth with questions, misconceptions and theories against the Generals goal of rescue. This is a fictional, yet plausible, conversation, opinion, thought and arguments which may have raced through the illustrious combat commander’s mind as he deployed, then pondered his decision establishing an operation many felt was launched only to rescue Johnnie Waters. A mission that failed terribly, concluding with the loss of thirty soldiers and the capture of nearly the entire force including equipment and vehicles. Colonel John Waters suffered a serious wound during the struggle to open the POW camp and returned to captivity.