Every American should know his name and his story. And, thanks to a great book by Stephen Ambrose — Band of Brothers — and an equally great HBO television series, many do. What millions of Americans don’t know is that Richard “Dick” Winters died on January 2 at the age of 92.
“Son, that is what you call a soldier’s soldier,” my dad, an Air Force man, told me after the epic series ended. And you know how charitable Air Force men are about Army men.
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The Washington Post didn’t report his death until January 9, and relegated the story to the obituary pages, rather than featuring a lengthy celebration on page one — which is what Winters’s life demanded. Indeed, we heard very little from the media about this great man’s death, largely because so few in the media actually cared about his life.
If Cher had died, we’d have heard endless stories within hours, with Diane Sawyer, Matt Lauer, Katie Couric, and Piers Morgan all fighting desperately to get the exclusive with Chaz.
Our media is bad, but our schools are worse. Our kids are peddled Earth Day celebrations, and cancer-awareness, drug-awareness, even clean-colon-awareness days. They get sex instruction, diversity seminars, and global-warming tutorials from Al Gore, but Veterans Day, and the stories of men like Maj. Dick Winters — well, that’s just not stuff with which we should be pestering our kids.
Major Winters, a longtime resident of Hershey, Pa., died at an assisted-living facility in nearby Campbelltown. But it is his life that we should all know, and the lives of the men he fought with.
Band of Brothers chronicled the men of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. The group came to be known as “Easy Company,” but there was nothing easy about their tour of duty. That brave band of warriors jumped into combat in June 1944, starting near the beaches of France. They fought their way through Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands and the Battle of the Bulge, all the way to Hitler’s retreat — the Eagle’s Nest — tucked in the Alps above Berchtesgaden.
It was some of the toughest fighting in the European Theater. As a result of high battlefield casualties, the unit experienced heavy turnover. One Easy Company soldier later wrote that among his colleagues, the Purple Heart “was not a decoration but a badge of office.”
One of Easy Company’s very best officers was Maj. Dick Winters. He was the kind of guy anyone would wish to call their boss. Late in the war, one of his soldiers, Floyd Talbert, wrote him a letter from an Indiana hospital, thanking him for his loyalty and leadership. “You are loved and will never be forgotten by any soldier that ever served under you,” Talbert wrote. “I would follow you into hell.”
Thank you so much for this tribute to a brave man who served his country. My Father also served with the 101st Airborne in the 327th GIR. Thank God for these men. We owe them so much and yet we rarely memorialize their service. I am thankful to know about these men.
The airborne troops would not have traded places with the glider troops for all the tea in China. Not only did glider troops not get jump pay, but landing in gliders was far more dangerous than jumping.
Yes, the glider airborne did not get jump pay but when they were on the ground they were used just like the paratroopers. When my Dad served at Bastogne they were out of ammunition and at fixed bayonets facing Panther and Tiger Tanks. They held their ground. When I asked my Dad why they didn't surrender since they had no effective means of defense, he simply said matter of factly, 'because they told us to hold' and then after a brief pause he said' because we were airborne'. I felt a chill run down my spine.
I've got tears in my eyes as I write this. Perhaps this could be the motto of a generation of Americans as we try to preserve the values that we hold dear.
I love this article but I want to make one correction.
The group did not come to be known as Easy company. It was called Easy company because at that time, E in the phonetic alphabet was Easy, just as it is presently Echo in the new NATO phonetic alphabet. All E companies in the Army and Marines were called Easy company
As the article says that Maj. Winters was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, I gather that the movement to upgrade his DSC to the Medal of Honor (the honor that Col. Sink originally recommended him for) for the Brecourt Manor action was unsuccessful during Maj. Winters' life.
How true that we need to be teaching our children about men like Major Dick Winters. He is the epitomy of grace and honor. Thank you for this wonderful article.
Thank you for this article; I am reading it (edited) for my children to remind them that this holiday is not the start of hunting season, but has a true and special meaning. Rest in Peace, Cpl. Winters and all of those of your generation and others who made such incredible sacrifices.
I agree with your sentiment regarding educating your children, but please be advised, Winters was a major, not a corporal. Vast difference in the chain of command.
The war in Europe broke out in 1939, not 1941. I imagine that Mr. Winters did what my father and many other men did at the time: He saw America's entry into the war looming and decided to enlist rather than be drafted. In those days, if you enlisted you could choose your military occupation. What's remarkable is that Mr. Winters chose to join the infantry, not a favored role for most. My father joined the Air Corps and initially trained as a glider pilot. Later, after they discovered most glider pilots died on landing, he was given a choice of fighters or bombers and became a B-17 pilot over Europe at a time when even with the Mustang's long-range fighter support the causalty rate was 50%.
It is perhaps a proof of God's grace upon this country that men like Dick Winters come forward to serve this country in its time of need. Unfortunately, it is also proof of a strain of evil that runs through our people that such men are ignored or disparaged. May our children reject that evil and, if called, serve in the manner of Major Winters.
Thank God too for the good, brave young men who have volunteered to help fight our war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere. Our country may have fewer "Dick Winter" type men than it had in the early 40's, but it still has them.
My dad was my hero, too. He commanded a platoon of tank destroyers attached to the 4th Armored Division, and during that time he saw almost constant combat in France, Belgium during the Battle of the Bilge (and yes, paratroopers, the tank boys DID rescue the surrounded 101st). He led his unit across the Saar River, driving their TDs at night over a railroad bridge so weakened it couldn't support heavier Sherman tanks, so they sent the TDs instead to surprise the Germans the next morning. He, too, entered a concentration camp (Ohrdruf) and he ended the war watching Czechoslovakian civilians literally crying as we abandoned that country to the Soviets. He was on his way to the Pacific to get ready for the invasion of Japan when Truman saved his life by dropping the a-bomb.
Then he came home, married, started to raise a family, but Truman interrupted that so he could "visit" Korea for a while.
Before he died in 2001, he merely noted that he "did just what had to be done."
In my reading of Maj. Winters and all of Easy Co. I can only wonder and admire at those men and the men like them still who serve with such devotion and distinction. We are a grateful nation indeed to have such men.
A wonderful article and a wonderful reminder that there are men like Maj. Winters. It's heartening to know that many still remember and honor him -- the local newspaper here in Lancaster Country, PA recently noted that people from around the world show up at the little, old Bergstrasse Lutheran Church to visit Maj. Winter's grave and pay tribute.
An interesting difference of opinion b/t/w civilians and veterans about folks in the military. I served with a lot of wonderful people and a lot of right b@@@@@@s. The only consistent difference in raw human material that I observed, between the two groups, was that those who served chose to step up and do it. Yet I remember those with whom I served as a particularly fine lot of men and women, having (by and large) better character as a group, than any similar cross section of civilians (with the possible exception of some hazardous duty types like cops & firefighters). Whether the institution and its work shapes character, or people with the right stuff simply choose to serve, isn't clear to me. What is clear is that I got more out of the military in the long run than I put into it. I'm grateful that I had the chance to serve, and that I got to do it in the company of the people I served with. That included murderous geeks, cerebral jocks, kindly, tough dummies, tough-as-leasther good ol' boys, city kids who were more urban than Jay Z, and even a fine layer of criminal scum who were, for the most part, much better quality people than civilian criminal scum. (You can't count on the latter to have your back in a fight.) I did serve with a couple legit heroes too - ordinary guys who just consistently did the hardest and most dangerous stuff, who happened to get recognized for it with high honors.
So thanks to my fellow vets. I appreciate your sacrifices, and feel honored to have shared the common experience of serving our country with you.
