I just heard the news that Major Richard D Winters passed away on January 2, two weeks before his 93rd birthday. Dick Winters was the commander of Company "E", 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, US Army, popularly known as "Easy Company", who's exploits were told in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. In the series, Major Winters was portrayed by Damian Lewis, and Winters added some commentary to the series along with other surviving members of Easy Company.
Winters and his men parachuted into Normandy in the dark morning of June 6, 1944, and began to fight their way across France, Belgium, the Netherlands and into Germany. D-Day, the Bulge, the siege of Bastogne, and into Hitler's Germany; Winters and Easy Company were there. He was one of the dwindling numbers of our Greatest Generation, one of those men and women who fought to save civilization during World War II and then went home to post war America and set the stage for what would be the zenith of the American Century.
His was a remarkable story, and he led an extraordinary life.
We are all in his debt, as we are to all who served in that era. My condolences to his loved ones, and here's a final salute a man who's story and that of his comrades will live for generations.
For more on the life of Major Dick Winters click here.
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