Major Dick Winters, Band of Brothers commander, Dies
Maj Richard D Winters, commander of Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (Airborne) on D-Day passed away today at age 92.
Major Richard D. "Dick" Winters has made his last jump. He passed away Sunday January 9 2011 only days before what would have been his 93rd birthday.
World War Two
He was best known for being commander of Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (Airborne) of the 101st 'Screaming Eagles" Airborne Davison. Jumping as a young 1st Lieutenant and the second in command of the company on D-Day he assumed command after the commander's plane was lost in the invasion. With his troops spread out across the French countryside behind Utah Beach near Sainte-Mère-Église. Winters positioned his remaining paratroopers to take four murderous German 105mm artillery pieces that could have held up the invasion on Utah. For this action, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross although he was recommended for the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was not awarded the CMOH due to the fact that the unit had already had a winner of the honor and there was a quota system then in place to prevent the inundation of multiple awards in the same unit.
Promoted to Captain, Winters led Easy company through the Market Garden operation (A Bridge Too Far), the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of Dachau, and finally to the capture of Hitler's Eagles Nest. He left the Army as a Major in 1946 but was recalled to serve in Korea four years later. He lived for the next forty years in quiet Hersey Pennsylvania and started a business.
Band of Brothers Connection
In the past fifteen years Winters was elevated from relative obscurity to stardom in military history and leadership circles due to his oft-mentioned accounts in historian by Stephen Ambrose’s 1992 book Band of Brothers. Steven Spielberg turned the book into an epic ten-part film production in 2001 of the same name. English actor Damian Lewis portrayed Major Winters in the film.
This led to a number of interviews with media outlets, a biography on his life entitled Biggest Brother: The Life of Major Dick Winters, the Man who led the Band of Brothers and other recognition.
