Nixon that he was ordered by Sobel to arbitrarily select several privates to receive latrine duty as punishment for minor infractions, which reminded Lewis of an old headmaster of his. Winters joked, "He doesn't hate Easy Company. One night, when Winters was accompanying Easy Company up Currahee for a hike, Private Randleman complained that Sobel hated the Company. Winters and his men would run up and down Currahee mountain and were driven by Sobel to perform additional calisthenics beyond what was required of other parachute companies. It was there he met the overly strict Captain Herbert Sobel, who commanded the company. He was assigned to Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, as leader of 2nd Platoon. He was impressed by the Paratroopers and chose to enlist in the Airborne, and was sent to train at Camp Toccoa, Georgia. After that experience, Winters chose to attend Officers Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he met his friend Lewis Nixon.Īfter graduating on June 2, 1942, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant. Winters' platoon leader was from ROTC and proved incompetent he once lectured his platoon for an hour about the M1 Garand Rifle while holding a Springfield M1903. However, after the United States entered the war following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, no further discharges were permitted and Winters was forced to remain in the army. He completed training at Camp Croft, South Carolina as a Private. He volunteered for the Army on August 25, 1941, because at that time you could leave the army after one year's service, and to avoid being drafted in the beginning of a promising career. He earned money by cutting grass, and later by working at a grocery store, and finally as a painter of high tension towers for Edison Electric Company. He graduated from Lancaster Boys' High School in 1937, and from Franklin & Marshall College in June 1941. His family moved to Ephrata when he was 8, and later to Lancaster. Richard Winters was born on January 21, 1918, in Dallas, Texas to Becky and Anita Bath Winters.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |