Dick Winters, WWII hero of ‘Band of Brothers,’ diesSource: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110110/ts_yblog_thelookout/dick-winters-wwii-hero-chronicled-in-band-of-brothers-dies
By Brett Michael Dykes – Mon Jan 10, 11:29 am ET
Dick Winters, a highly decorated World War II hero who became a household name when his heroics were chronicled in a Stephen Ambrose book that later became the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers," has died. He was 92.
A very private and modest man, he died last week but requested that the news be withheld until after the funeral, a family friend told the Associated Press.
After enlisting in the Army on Aug. 25, 1941, the Pennsylvania native enrolled in Officer Candidate School, eventually being commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in 1942. He was assigned to the 506th regiment of the 101st Airborne Division -- known as Easy Company -- and was deployed with his regiment to land by parachute in France on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
By leading the takeover of a German artillery bunker on Utah Beach, Winters and his company saved countless lives from relentless cannon fire -- an action that earned him the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest honor an American soldier can receive. Winters and Easy Company later fought near the Belgian town of Foy during the Battle of the Bulge, liberated the German concentration camp at Dachau, and occupied Hitler's mountainside retreat, Eagle's Nest.
In 1945, one of Winters' soldiers, Floyd Talbert, wrote a letter to Winters from his hospital bed to express appreciation for his leadership in battle.
"You are loved and will never be forgotten by any soldier that ever served under you," Talbert wrote. "I would follow you into hell."
Below is a brief video that opens with Winters talking about being a leader, and follows with some of the soldiers who were under his command talking about his exploits: [VIDEO OMITTED B/C I'm not tech-savvy enough to know how to paste it]
Shaken by what he experienced in war, Winters reportedly vowed to live a simple life if he managed to survive, and that's just what he did. After returning home, he married his then-girlfriend, Ethel, bought a farm in Pennsylvania and raised a family. He reportedly never talked about his war experiences until Ambrose came calling in the hopes of documenting Easy Company's role in winning the war. Winters said he honored Ambrose's request because he felt it important for future generations to learn about the war, its consequences and the sacrifices made by soldiers. He later wrote his own memoir, "Beyond Band of Brothers."
Winters was leading a quiet life of farm retirement in Hershey, Pa., when "Band of Brothers" turned him into a minor celebrity. People who knew him say that he never really became comfortable with life in the spotlight. He had fielded countless requests for interviews and personal appearances over the past decade or so, most of which he turned down.
Winters was, by all accounts, exceedingly modest. When someone would ask him whether he considered himself a hero, he would usually respond by saying, "No. But I served in a company of heroes." Chroniclers of the World War II era, however, such as legendary NBC newsman Tom Brokaw -- who detailed the lives of Winters and others like him in his "Greatest Generation" series of books -- beg to differ.
"Dick Winters was the quintessential American infantry officer -- brave, canny and modest," Brokaw told The Lookout. "His heroic leadership of the Band of Brothers is a one-man course on how to become a warrior without losing your humanity."
It makes me teary. I just figured I'd add it here to have my own documentation of the event and because it didn't seem to get much press (likely because he wanted the news withheld until after the funeral).
I haven't actually watched Band of Brothers. I have the DVD box set and of course I've read the book (I like Ambrose's WWII stuff a lot, haven't read his other periods, would have been so cool to have met him though, an inspiring author, would have been awesome as a WWII studies mentor), but I'm generally more interested in the War in the Pacific and I don't know how I feel about watching this big production with actors and angles and editing and storylines and stuff. But I'm sure I'll watch it one of these days, mostly because so many people who know me well have told me they think I'll like it.
As an aside, one of the only shirts I remember seeing during the White Rock marathon on another runner was this guy wearing a black Easy Company shirt that said 101st Airborne, Bastogne to Baghdad. He passed us on the northeast side of the lake and then I remember passing him somewhere in the last mile. Wish I'd asked him about his shirt, but we weren't at the same pace during either encounter.
Second, not surprising but amusing news.
Want to exercise more? Drink beer.
That’s the findings of two studies reported on in the New York Times.
This is expected and no surprise to Beer Runners, of course. But the Times reported that the answer to an American Journal of Health Promotion article asking “Do Alcohol Consumers Exercise More?” was “a resounding if counterintuitive yes.”
“In fact, the data show, the more people drink, the more they exercise,” the studies demonstrated.
Specifically, the findings show that heavy drinkers exercise about 10 minutes more per week than moderate drinkers and 20 more minutes per week than abstainers. Even binge drinking “increases the number of minutes of total and vigorous physical activity per week.”
Researchers are befuddled by these findings, and speculate that exercise and drinking stimulate the reward centers of the brain. Another theory suggets that running provides a “neuroprotection” against binge drinking killing brain cells.
But those are all just guesses. What do you think? What makes you a beer runner?
Source: http://draftmag.com/beerrunner/want-to-exercise-more-drink-more-beer./
Very funny! I don't consider myself a heavy drinker by any stretch of the imagination. But December is always a month where I consume much more than usual, so it's awkward in January to say I'm not really a drinker. Hubby drinks wine with dinner more often than not but I usually don't (unless we're on vacation overseas, in which case we both usually drink at lunch and dinner). I'm likely to drink if we go out for dinner, but lately we don't do that too often. And I don't go out for happy hour very often these days either, less than once a month probably lately. But I'm about 1 bazillion times more likely to get completely plowed on a crazy night than my husband is. That seems to happen less than 4 times per year on average, though this year might have some skewed numbers with two brothers getting married (and two future sister in law bachelorette parties!), plus other weddings, Oktoberfest, post-marathon celebrations, hopefully a post-5k-PR celebration, friends visiting, etc. But when I'm out, sometimes it means I'm out hard-core, and I'm getting to the age where I don't recover quite so quickly, so I do it less and less often...
I think I spend about 3 hours per week cross-training and about 5 hours per week running. That's a rough estimate for now. The numbers will no doubt be significantly higher in March or so, but they'll average back down after Boston. But I'd still guess that's more than the average person? Or more than the average alcohol abstainer?
Anyway, thought I'd share both bits with you!
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