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Post by hardslack on Dec 11, 2020 22:28:47 GMT -5
Picked this up in paperback at a thrift store. Its fantastic. I love the older military non-fiction paperbacks that I find from time to time. Frequently written by a veteran, they have a lot more first hand info than more modern books.
I cranked through it in a few hours, hard to put down. He details his training, and the D-Day drop. Seems like there was good detail on his D-Day loadout for us geeks, but its all really like a diary. Biggest thing that stood out was how many training accidents he saw. Seemed like every jump at least one guy got seriously wounded or killed. Lots of chutes not opening. One time he mentions there was a punishment if you were the last to pack your chute, so when his slipped off the table around the last folds, he just stuffed it in mostly and had a buddy jump on the pack until he could get it all in... We're reading the book so he makes it but... as mentioned in the grenade thread I just made, a different time.
Anyway, highly recommend, he wrote two more (one bastonge and one something else, cant remember off the top of my head but market garden seems likely)
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Dec 12, 2020 20:25:32 GMT -5
I met him at a Battle of the Bulge Reunion at the FT Lewis Officers club I attended with my father. Also met several of the Easy Company Band of Brothers including Major Winters. The book was out but the series had not been produced yet. I had my Tactical maps of the Ardennes on display and my Jeep was there and Gave Major Winters a ride in it to the museum where there was a reception. Burgget has a very distinctive voice and was very outspoken. I had read his book and knew who he was.
I will always remember the event. I had no idea who Winters was at the time. He was very quiet and polite. I could see that he was a universally respected individual. His wife was lovely. She opted not to ride in the Jeep and rode over in one of the many Coach buses that had been arranged. My father and Winters spent a lot of time chatting.
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Post by hardslack on Dec 12, 2020 22:12:31 GMT -5
Very cool. It seemed like Burgget was in F co or some other unit besides E, but its been several months since I read currahee, and years since Band of Brothers.
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Dec 13, 2020 13:28:23 GMT -5
Back in the day smart phones and tablets didn't exist and videos were shot on big VHS cameras. To my knowledge no one recorded anything but while it would have been awesome to have captured the whole event one thing that really would have been cool was when the airborne vets from the 82nd and 101st all sang "Blood on the Risers" and some of the cadence songs. Most of which were still in use in some variant or another when I served. Many of the wives had never heard them and I suspect were shocked at the vulgarity.
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Post by volkssturm on Dec 14, 2020 13:09:13 GMT -5
My uncle was in Co. B 502d PIR. He was killed late in he Battle of the Bulge (around Jan. 10, '45 apparently). We really don't know much because no one ever said much about him. We we were cleaning out the house after my parents passed away we found a small batch of photographs taken during training. Not sure where it was. I need to scan them in and post them one of these days.
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Dec 14, 2020 15:02:16 GMT -5
That would be a nice tribute for him and great for all of us.
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