It sounds like you have been drinking deep from the well of Major General Isaac Davis White, who long ago argued that cavalry was a “concept” and it was not written in stone that cavalry mean troopers had to be mounted on horses.

The “concept” being of course — the ability to quickly break through and envelope enemy positions and exploit (if not create) the ensuing chaos in enemy rear areas.

From Dragoons to cavalry to armor to “mechanized infantry” to airmobile/air assault, the concept remains the same, just the technology changes.

I shiver at what a George S. Patton might do today with a combined-arms force like the 1st Cavalry Division.

I want to made suggestions to correct your text if you don’t mind.

First of all the Chaffee’s middle name – Romanza, Adna Romanza Chaffee (to proof it look at the Arlington cemetery website).

Second – there’s no 1st Cavalry Division (Mechanized) in 1931. The first cavalry regiment that was mechanized was the 1st cavalry regiment which was stay in Marfa then and was brought to Fort Knox to participate in mechanization in early January 1933.
The Gasoline brigade of 1928 and the Detachment for Mechanized Regiment which was constituted in 1930 was the ancestors of the mechanized cavalry regiment.

And couple of words about Patton. He was left the Tank Corps after Eisenhower and transfer back to Cavalry. Although he was one of the early advocates of tank and mechanization he’s drift apart from the topic and to the 1930s was more and more sceptical about tanks and armored development.
In 1938 he ended up with John Herr, the Chief of Cavalry, who openly oppose the mechanization of his branch. Under his direction Patton begin to think about ‘modernizing’ the M1913 saber to reintroduce it to Cavalry (although it was discontinued in 1934) and support his pro-horse rhetoric.
When the things was at the edge and Chaffee Jr. openly confronted Herr and his agenda by introducing the cause to Chief of Staff Marshall Patton understand that cavalry day is over and in the 1940 request for transferring to 2d Armored division where he eventually became the Major General. Herr proposed him a Division command in his branch but Patton wisely decided to leave his patron of last years.

Anyway, thanks for posting the story!