Jan. 21, 1918 is the birthday of a hero of WWII who would have remained unknown if not for a spectacular mini-series.
In 1990, historian Stephen Ambrose sat down with Dick Winters to interview him about his WWII experiences for a book about the war. It was Winters who suggested the book concentrate on Easy Company because their future reunions would make for good interviews. Little did he know that the subsequent book “Band of Brothers” would make him famous and the series based on the book would make him a celebrity and the face of small unit officers for the European Theater. Richard Winters was born on Jan. 21, 1918 in New Holland, Pa. He graduated from Franklin and Marshall College with a degree in Economics in 1941. Although not interested in a military career, he volunteered for the Army to avoid the draft. Unfortunately, Pearl Harbor locked him in. He went to Officer Candidate School and emerged a Second Lieutenant. It was at OCS that he met Lewis Nixon and they began their friendship. He joined airborne and was assigned to Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. (I won’t cover his experiences in the war as “Band of Brothers” does this admirably and accurately.) By the end of the war, he was Major Winters and commander of the 2nd Battalion. He was recommended for the Medal of Honor for his actions at Brecourt Manor (the taking out of the artillery position in the series), but it was downgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross. The Brecourt Manor Assault was taught at West Point as a textbook example of an attack on a fixed position by a numerically inferior force. (I used it as an exercise in my History of Warfare class,) He also received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. After the war he returned to Pennsylvania and married. He worked for Nixon’s family business and rose to general manager. When the Korean War broke out, he was recalled and tried to avoid it. He was allowed to resign his commission. He bought a small farm where he and Ethel raised two kids. He eventually opened a farm supply business. He died in 2011 at age 92.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Winters
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/us/11winters.html
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