For the majority of soldiers the end of the fighting had brought a feeling of surprise that they should be still alive and of relief from operations which had combined the maximum possible physical discomfort with profound boredom and unrewarding personal risk. Patton was not among them. By July 1919 he was back with his 1st Tank Brigade in the United States at Fort Meade, Maryland. Although he and all the other regular army officers had now been reduced to their substantive rank he had lost none of his enthusiasm for the development of mechanised war. The tanks which had taken part in the campaigns of 1918 had been clumsy and primitive machines designed to meet a temporary need. Patton with his vivid imagination was convinced that, provided their mechanical defects could be overcome, their potential was great. At Fort Meade therefore he at once plunged with unabashed zeal and vigour into new schemes for research, development, experiment and training in the new arm. To say that the reception of his proposals by his immediate superior, General Rockenbach, was chilly would be an understatement. Congress was in no mood to vote the necessary funds. In fact for the next 17 years, when considering the allotment of money for the Army, their attitude would be well expressed by the tag:
Tanks is tanks, and tanks is dear:
There shall be no tanks this year.
Patton was undeterred. Although now only a mere major, he would continue the campaign on his own.