


Training started right away, and there was this Currahee Mountain that we had to run up and down. But you were expecting to have it rough if you were going to be in the parachute troops.
#Lt buck compton ptsd windows
There were no windows in any of the buildings, and the only place with electricity was the latrine. There was not much there, and I was assigned to a tar-paper shack.

I took Highway 13, passed a casket factory and reported in at Camp Toombs. On the way to the camp I was pretty unsettled. I had been at this for about 13 weeks when I got orders to report to Camp Toombs in Georgia. After graduating from OCS, I reported to Camp Croft, in South Carolina, where I was busy training new men. I had always enjoyed sports and physical activity, and there was a certain appeal to being with the best. While I was at OCS at Fort Benning, Ga., I applied for the airborne, a new thing that looked like a challenge. I scored high enough that I qualified for Officer Candidate School.
#Lt buck compton ptsd series
When I first joined the Army I took a series of tests to see where I would best fit. Winters’ first opportunity to lead came in 1942, when he completed Officer Candidate School and began his journey to Easy Company and war. So, as a way to deliver what I believe is an important message, and to honor my friend’s request, I speak on this subject whenever I have an opportunity. I was one of the first people he called when he said that he had sold the book to Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.Īmbrose later wrote me another letter and said that in the future, whenever I had an opportunity, I should talk on the subject of leadership. I appreciated that recognition, and I appreciated the fact that he never forgot me. He continued to do this with every book he wrote afterward. In that letter he said, ‘Thanks for teaching me the duties and responsibilities of a good company commander.’ Later on, he again acknowledged me in his book on Lewis and Clark. Major Dick Winters: After Band of Brothers became such an unexpected success, Ambrose wrote me a letter of thanks. It was Ambrose who, after chronicling Winters’ story, impressed upon him that his leadership ethics could inspire all generations. They have become the embodiment of millions of American servicemen who marched off to war as ordinary men but achieved extraordinary things.įaced with his newfound fame, Winters seized the opportunity to continue to lead and instill in others the lessons about leadership he learned in the life and death crucible of war. This mass exposure transformed Winters and his comrades into cultural icons for generations far removed from World War II. The spotlight intensified exponentially when Hollywood’s Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks teamed up to bring Winters’ story to tens of millions in the highly acclaimed, Emmy-winning HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. Ambrose’s best-selling book Band of Brothers, which brought the World War II story of Dick Winters and Company E, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division - which he had commanded from Normandy to Berchtesgaden - to the public’s attention. In 1992 this solitude was interrupted with the publication of historian Stephen E. Following a brief tour of duty during the Korean War, he returned to Hershey, Pa., embarked on a successful business career, raised a family and lived the quiet life he had promised himself after his first day in combat on June 6, 1944. He worked for a while for Nixon Nitration Works, the family firm of his wartime friend Louis Nixon. Army in 1945, Major Richard Winters returned to civilian life. Dick Winters: Reflections From Major Winters Of Easy Company CloseĪfter his discharge from the U.S.
