Prayers and condolences to this true American hero’s family.
PHILADELPHIA – Even as Parkinson’s disease began taking its toll on Dick Winters, who led his “Band of Brothers” through some of World War II’s fiercest European battles, the unassuming hero refused, as always, to let his men down.Friends accompanied him to public events, subtly clearing a path through the adoring crowds for the living legend, whose Easy Company’s achievements were documented by a book and HBO miniseries. His gait had grown unsteady, and he did not want to be seen stumbling.Winters “didn’t want the members of Easy Company to know,” William Jackson said Monday of his longtime friend, who died last week at age 92. “Right up to the end, he was the company commander.”An intensely private and humble man, Winters had asked that news of his death be withheld until after his funeral, Jackson said. Winters lived in Hershey, Pa., but died in an assisted-living center in neighboring Palmyra.The men Winters led through harrowing circumstances and under fire from the German army never let the toll of time dull their own admiration for their commander.
“When he said `Let’s go,’ he was right in the front,” William Guarnere, 88, and dubbed “Wild Bill” by his comrades, said Sunday night from his south Philadelphia home. “He was never in the back. A leader personified.”
8 comments:
Items like this are why so many of your readers remain loyal.
What was this man's rank? I just assumed "General," but some in my office say maybe not. I'm not sure we are supposed to rank heroes, but I do wonder.
HE MADE THE RANK OF CAPTAIN NEAR THE END OF THE MOVIE. LATER, HE BECAME A MAJOR.
Mr Pock,
Don't let me butt inyo your post. However, your readers may wish to know that I just spent my lunch hour looking up this man on Google.
He wrote a book about his experiences and his men were called "heroes" by what appears to be the whole Google world.
Only one person said he wasn't a "hero" himself, and that was him. Apparently he would only say that he "served among heroes."
Great way to spend lunch.
If you read any of my war stories you might remember that we spent three days in the water and another two weeks on Omaha Beach blowing up obstacles so hundreds of ships could land. Then we moved inland to destroy hedgerows that still held up progress. There we met remnants of Easy Company, some pretty well torn up and preparing to go again. What surprised me most was that they seemed to be older than us. And as we moved into France we encountered the wreckage where they had landed behind the beaches to prevent counter attacks on us. I had just turned 19 and thought they were all heroes .
Pock; You and they are HEROES.You are a member of that "greatest generation.You and the other heroes of the greatest generation handed us a gift and we fumbled it away by allowing government to run wild, entitilements and political correctness.
The greatest generation would've been even greater if they'd been able to find a way to provide sufficient appreciation for what they handed us, in addition to what they actually "handed us.
Mr. Pocklinton,I think that America owes all of the heroes of the greatest generation an apology.
I'm sure all vets of that war do appreciate your remarks. I hope you read my story, "Playing together for the last time." There surely are many great stories that could be told by that group.I knew none of them personally but there is some mysterious bond between us. I never fail to salute a veteran's hat and if he in any way responds I shake his hand. He knows why.
I hace read all of your stories abd the recollection of history as you know and experieneced it. I have said it many times, that too many young people have no clue of the history and of the sacrifice of those who came before them.
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