Book Quote

A book quote from Beyond Band of Brothers by Major Dick Winters and Cole C Kingseed.

"Physical exhaustion leads to mental exhaustion, which in turn, causes men to lose discipline. Loss of self-discipline then produces combat fatigue. Self-discipline keeps a soldier doing his job. Without it, he loses his pride and he loses the importance of self-respect in the eyes of his fellow soldiers. It is pride that keeps a soldier going and keeps him in the fight."

"One last observation on combat fatigue: When you see a man break, he usually slams his helmet down and messes up his hair. I don't know if its conscious or unconscious, but a soldier goes to his head and massages his head, shakes it, and then he's gone. You can talk to him all you want, but he cannot hear you. When he reaches that point, the best thing for everybody is just to let him take a walk."

A little something

Introduction: As a business student I have learned a valuable lesson when writing in a journal, online blog, article, etc. Always cite your sources and/or references. So I am going to do just that, and cite something from Major Dick Winters: Beyond Band of Brothers, book. The following paragraphs in italics is an exact excerpt from his book. This excerpt can be found in Part Two/Chapter 8 "The Island," on pages 147 and 148... Now that I have cited where I found it, now lets get on with it.

"Leaving Easy Company was the hardest thing I had done in my life. Life in an infantry company is extremely intimate and the result is that men share their collective experiences each and every day. As I reflected on my two years in the company, from a platoon leader at Toccoa to Easy's commanding officer since D-Day, I knew that I was leaving the greatest group of men with whom I had ever served. From the tyrannical tenure of Captain Sobel through my relief, Easy Company had trained and fought as a cohesive unit. At Toccoa, Sobel had constantly screamed at the men and he forced each soldier to stand on his own. You were not supposed to help one another. If you did, Sobel withheld your pass and placed you on extra duty. He was trying to wash the men out. This brought the men closer together as they helped each other with their sprains, in carrying heavy equipment, such as crew-served weapons, mortars, and base plates. Easy Company had to work together to get through each day, and this cohesion intensified as the weeks passed. In time, I noticed that when the men started receiving packages from home, they shared within their squad and within their platoon. When we deployed to England in 1943 the cooperation manifested itself even more when the commissioned officers mutinied because of their fear of going into battle with Captain Sobel. The rebellion was based on true fear of what lay ahead. Fortunately Colonel Sink had intervened to diffuse a highly dangerous situation. And later, of course, when we entered combat, the men continued to share the good and the bad, the tough times and the easy times. From D-Day onward, combat further cemented the closeness that united Easy Company. Stress and combat created a special bond that only exists in an infantry company at war. Hardship and death brought the men together as close as any family or any husband and wife. it was this bond that made Easy Company "a band of brothers" that exists to this day. I was fortunate enough to have been a part of it, but the cohesion that existed in the company was hardly the result of my leadership. The company belonged to the men--the officers were merely the caretakers."

I would like to take this time to say one thing: These outstanding, incredible, brave, superior soldiers of the 101st Airborne, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Easy Company - needed leaders. Needed a superior commanding officer. And they got one! In you, Mr Winters, sir! You, nor anyone else can possibly deny that you were one helluva fine officer. Great leader, combat leader, friend to all, fierce, caring of your men's physical and mental health, great tactician and a brilliant decision maker. All of those things, defines what a leader is Mr Winters. You yourself were a Business Student and later a Manager at Nixon Nitration Works, (if my memory serves me well) right? You know what a good leader is, and many others do too. You were the right man to lead those men. It was meant to be! God wanted it that way!

This may sound dumb or whatever, but in the (I hate saying this) old days (lol) people did not want to take credit for themselves. Many thought it was (what's the word I am looking for here) *thinks for a minute* - lets just say, self centered. Everyone helped each other out, had more core values and morals to live by than most of our young people do today (I myself am guilty of this too--but not all the time, I try my best not to be like everyone else who's 26 years old). And I understand the old ways of doing things tells these men to not take credit, tells them 'we just did our jobs, no big deal' and so on. That attitude is very admirable, and very touching. I know they are proud! I am proud of them for doing what they did.

Thank you.