Patton biographer Carlo D'Este explained that "on the one hand he could and did admire the toughness and courage" of some black soldiers, but his writings can also be frequently read as "disdaining them and their officers because they were not part of his social order." Historian Hugh Cole pointed out that Patton was also the first American military leader to integrate rifle companies "when manpower got tight." Retired NBA Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, co-author of "Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII's Forgotten Heroes", agreed that although Patton was a bigot the fact remains that he did lend his name to the advancement of blacks in the military at the time, unlike most other military officers (Patton did prevent a black soldier from being lynched while serving as commander of a fort in El Paso before the war). Most of the veterans of the 761st that Abdul-Jabbar interviewed stated they were proud to have served under a general widely considered one of the most brilliant and feared Allied military leaders of World War II.