Farewell To Dick Winters (Band of Brothers)

[privateinvestor]

Farewell to WWII hero Maj. Dick Winters, central character in 'Band of Brothers'Stokes Young writes:Major Dick Winters passed away Jan. 2 in central Pennsylvania. If you've read Stephen Ambrose's book or watched the HBO miniseries, you'll likely already have mental pictures of Winters' acts of heroism during harsh fighting in Europe during the Second World War. This is what he looked like in 1945:
Winters told his own story in 'Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters,' and begins his first chapter by describing the "quiet peace" he says every soldier wants to find:

I am still haunted by the names and faces of young men, young airborne troopers who never had the opportunity to return home after the war and begin their lives anew. Like most veterans who have shared the hardship of combat, I live with flashbacks--distant memories of an attack on a battery of German artillery on D-Day, an assault on Carentan, a bayonet attack on a dike in Holland, the cold of Bastogne[...] If you had a man who was killed, you looked at him and hoped that he had found peace in death. I'm not sure whether they were fortunate or unfortunate to get out of the war so early. So many men died so that others could live. No one understands why.
To find a quiet peace is the dream of every soldier. For some it takes longer than others. In my own experience I have discovered that it is far easier to find quiet than to find peace. True peace must come from within oneself. As my wartime buddies join their fallen comrades at an alarming rate, distant memories resurface. The hard times fade and the flashbacks go back to friendly times, to buddies with whom I shared a unique bond, to men who are my brothers in every sense of the word. I live with these men every day.

To see and hear Winters describe the heroism of Easy Company in video, click here. To watch Winters describe Easy Company's Brecourt Manor assault on D-Day, click below:







photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/01/10/5804380-farewell-to-wwii-hero-maj-dick-winters-central-character-in-band-of-
brothers

[deziloooooo]

R.I.P Maj..{I still think of him as the Captain...}..The interesting thing to me was how he epitomized the thousands of officers ..enlisted men too...who were plucked from civilian lives ..over 16 million served from the USA..for the officers to be...sent to OCS ... for the enlisted , just served but took on more and more responsibilities..till they too became the leaders...for the majority , they had no illusions of thinking military as a career..true peacetime soldiers ..yet rose to be able to do their jobs so well..above and beyond...and won out against the most formidable enemy of the time....Thank you Captain {Maj} Winters.

While kind of expected ..a sad day..thanks for the post P. I.

[handyman2]

loved the series, still watch it at times. He did an excellent job of in a few words describing the inner conflict of men who saw what hell is like.
He earned his strips along with the brave men who fought along side him.
May he find the peace he cherished in the here after in the arms of the master.

[jarhead1976]

Amen

[privateinvestor]

Dick Winters said that his grand daughter asked him "Grand Pa were you a hero in WW2?" and his response is classic Dick Winters " No, but I served with a lot of guys who were"



Winters was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and Purple heart as a company commander in WW2.

[deziloooooo]

For anyone who is interested..following is the Obit on Major Winters.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/10/AR2011011006268.html