Dick Winters, of 'Band of Brothers' fame, diesPublished: Sunday, January 09, 2011, 6:25 PM Updated: Monday, January 10, 2011, 12:25 AM By MONICA VON DOBENECK, The Patriot-News Dick Winters, the former World War II commander whose war story was told in the book and miniseries “Band of Brothers,” has died.
Dick Winters led a quiet life on his Fredericksburg farm and in his Hershey home until the book and miniseries “Band of Brothers” threw him into the international spotlight.
Since then, the former World War II commander of Easy Company had received hundreds of requests for interviews and appearances all over the world.
He stood at the podium with President George W. Bush in Hershey during the presidential campaign in 2007. He accepted the “Four Freedoms” award from Tom Brokaw on behalf of the Army. He was on familiar terms with Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, producers of the HBO mini-series, the most expensive television series ever produced.
Winters was always gracious about his new-found celebrity, but never really comfortable with it. He never claimed to be a hero and said that he had nothing to do with the national effort to get him the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor.
When people asked him if he was a hero, he liked to answer the way his World War II buddy, Mike Ranney, did.
“No,” Ranney said. “But I served in a company of heroes.” That became the tag line for the miniseries.
In an interview shortly before the miniseries debuted, Winters said the war wasn’t about individual heroics. The men were able to do what they did because they became closer than brothers when faced with overwhelming hardships.
They weren’t out to save the world. They hated the blood, carnage, exhaustion and filth of war. But they were horrified at the thought of letting down their buddies.
On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Winters and his troops from Easy Company, 506th regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, parachuted behind enemy lines to take on a German artillery nest on Utah Beach. Winters made himself a promise then that if he lived through the war, all he wanted was peace and quiet.
His company fought through the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of a death camp at Dachau and to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgaden.
The war described in “Band of Brothers” is ugly, but the young men developed character under fire, Winters said. He was glad the miniseries showed war realistically, not either glorified or demonized as in so many movies.
He wanted people to understand that success in war depends not on heroics but on bonding, character, getting the job done and “hanging tough,” his lifelong motto. In combat, he wrote 50 years after the war, “your reward for a good job done is that you get the next tough mission.”
When the war ended, Winters kept his promise to himself. He married Ethel, bought a bucolic farm in Fredericksburg, raised two children and worked in the agricultural feed business. He didn’t talk about the war until the late historian Stephen Ambrose wanted to put Easy Company’s exploits on paper.
Following the miniseries, Winters turned down most requests for interviews because he said he didn’t want to appear like he was bragging.
But he did feel the story of Easy Company was an important one, especially for young people. He was more likely to accept invitations by local school groups and spent time with students at Cedar Crest High School, among others. A talk he gave at Palmyra Middle School drew hundreds of spectators.
People who knew Winters during and after the war said he is exactly what he appears to be. He could lead without ever raising his voice or swearing. His friend Bob Hoffman, a Lebanon architect, said Winters’ eyes could “burn a hole right through you.”
The men who served under him and people who only met him later in life call him a hero, no matter what he says.
According to the book, one wounded member of Easy Company wrote Winters from a hospital bed in 1945, “I would follow you into hell.”
He received a standing ovation from 500 veterans when he spoke at the dedication of the Army’s Military History Institute in Middlesex Township in September.
When President Bush was in Hershey in April, he called Winters “a fine example ... for those brave souls who now wear our nation’s uniform.”
Ambrose, the author of “Band of Brothers,” said in a 2001 BBC interview that he hopes young people say. “I want to be like Dick Winters.”
“Not necessarily as soldiers, but as that kind of leader, that kind of man, with basic honesty and virtue and an understanding of the difference between right and wrong,” Ambrose said.
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Dick Winters, who inspired 'Band of Brothers,' remembered as an American hero Published: Monday, January 10, 2011, 12:10 AM Updated: Monday, January 10, 2011, 12:33 AM By LARA BRENCKLE, The Patriot-NewsHis life story was writ large, a hero ready-made for Hollywood who helped save the nation during its darkest hour.
But that, Dick Winters’ friends said, was Hollywood.
In real life, Winters, whose leadership in Easy Company, 506th regiment of the 101st Airborne Division was commemorated in the HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers,” based on the Stephen Ambrose book, shied from the spotlight.
And when Winters died Jan. 2 at an assisted-living facility in Campbelltown, his final wish — a totally private funeral — befit a man who lived through extraordinary circumstances but never considered himself anything more than a man doing his duty, his longtime friend William S. Jackson said Sunday night.
Jackson, the former editor of the Hummelstown Sun and a friend for 20 years, said Winters, 92, had been in declining health.
Proud but not boastful, Winters injected a good sense of fun into most things and never seemed to take his turn in the spotlight seriously, Jackson said.
Word of Winters’ death, withheld by the family for more than a week out of respect for his wishes, leaked Sunday on several World War II websites, including the message board for the official Maj. Richard Winters site and a Facebook page.
In an effort to confirm his passing, The Patriot-News called scores of state and local officials, hospitals and funeral homes.
Bill Guarnere, a Philadelphia resident who served under Winters, told a reporter he had been informed by HBO of Winters’ death but didn’t know for sure.
Neighbors and those involved with local World War II remembrances seemed hesitant, saying only what they’d heard from other sources.
In the end, it was Jackson, who spoke with Winters’ widow, Ethel, on Sunday evening, who provided confirmation.
A memorial service, headed up by retired Col. Cole C. Kingseed, who co-authored Winters’ autobiography, “Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Maj. Dick Winters,” will be scheduled, Jackson said.
‘Hell of a man’
Some who served under Winters in Easy Company were always ready to discuss their leader.
As news of his death spread, the tributes came pouring in.
“He took care of his men and his men took care of him,” Guarnere said. “That’s why they called us the ‘band of brothers.’ “
Clancy Lyall of Lexington Park, Md., also served under Winters.
Lyall described him as “a great leader and a hell of a man.”
Being around him was all it took to cheer up from even the worst moods, he said.
“When you’d see him, you’d pick up again,” Lyall said.
That carried into his later years.
Paul Thompson, president of the Hershey-Derry Township Historical Society, lived down the street from Winters’ Derry Township home.
“To be in his presence was a great feeling,” Thompson said. “You felt euphoric for a long time.”
Filmmaker Brian Kreider of Derry Township met Winters through his job in the Pennsylvania Film Office.
Winters was pushing for some of “Band of Brothers” to be filmed in Pennsylvania, and Kreider helped scout locations. The two later worked on a documentary and lecture series in which Winters discussed his experiences between clips from “Band of Brothers.”
A born leader
Winters was a natural leader, Kreider said.
“There’s no question you would follow him,” he said.
His warmth and strength were augmented by a wonderful sense of humor, Kreider said.
Once, Kreider, Winters and another man scouted a location with a goldfish pond. As a joke, Kreider remembered, Winters quietly nabbed a handful of food pellets and dropped them in as the man leaned in to see the tiny goldfish.
The scout was surprised when a horde of hungry catfish began splashing mightily under his nose, Kreider said.
A national hero, Winters was especially beloved in his home state.
State House of Representative’s Democratic leader Frank Dermody called Winters “a real-life American hero.”
“He led hundreds of young men through some of the toughest fighting the world has known, but at his core he was a peaceful man,” Dermody said. “In everything he did, he served honorably.”
Born in Ephrata on Jan. 21, 1918, to Richard and Edith Winters, Winters moved to nearby Lancaster when he was 8, according to his biography. He graduated from Lancaster Boys High School in 1937 and from Franklin & Marshall College in 1941.
Winters and his troops from Easy Company parachuted behind enemy lines to take on a German artillery nest on Utah Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944. His company fought through the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of a death camp at Dachau and to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgaden.
The war described in “Band of Brothers” is ugly, but the young men developed character under fire, Winters said in interviews. He was glad the miniseries showed war realistically, not glorified or demonized as in so many movies.
He wanted people to understand that success in war depends not on heroics but on bonding, character, getting the job done and “hanging tough,” his lifelong motto. In combat, he wrote 50 years after the war, “Your reward for a good job done is that you get the next tough mission.”
Home from the war
After the war, he fulfilled the pledge he made to himself in the midst of the D-Day chaos: If he survived the war, he would find a nice, quiet place and live in peace.
He married Ethel, bought a bucolic farm in Fredericksburg, raised two children and worked in the agricultural feed business. He didn’t talk about the war until Ambrose wanted to put Easy Company’s exploits on paper.
“When the book [“Band of Brothers”] came out, he sent it to me at the paper with a note, saying, ‘I don’t know if this is worth writing about,’" Jackson recalled with a laugh.
Following the miniseries, Winters turned down most requests for interviews because he said he didn’t want to appear as if he was bragging. But he did feel the story of Easy Company was an important one, especially for young people.
He was more likely to accept invitations by local school groups and spent time with students at Cedar Crest High School, among others. A talk he gave at Palmyra Middle School drew hundreds of spectators.
Winters’ story so moved Jordan Brown, 11, of South Lebanon, he began raising money for Rhode Island filmmaker Tim Gray’s effort to erect a memorial of Winters in Normandy.
Jordan sold bracelets with Winters’ motto “hang tough” on them, raising $21,000.
Jordan never got to meet his hero, said his mother, Yasmin Brown. However, in the spring, Winters’ daughter sent the boy a note letting him know Winters had heard about his fundraising and was very pleased.
Yasmin Brown said she’d learned about Winters’ death from the Internet. As word of his death spread, she said she had to break the news to her son.
“There’s no good way to tell your kid his hero has died,” Brown said. “But I told him he should take comfort in knowing Maj. Winters was happy with his efforts. In a way, [with his efforts] he’d joined the ‘Band of Brothers,’ too.”
NOTE: The Hershey-Derry Township Historical Society is adding a wreath to its collection of Winters memorabilia and giving the public the opportunity to sign a condolence book. Winters donated much of his memorabilia to an exhibit at the historical society. The book is available for signing for the rest of the month.
Where: 40 Northeast Drive, Derry Township
When: Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. http://www.majordickwinters.com/
