Posted on 06/06/2010 6:34:21 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen
Sixty-six years ago Saturday night, Army Sgt. Bill Guarnere was dressed to kill.
--snip--
Sgt. Guarnere was ready for a fight by the time D-Day arrived. He had just learned of his brother Henry's death at the hands of the Germans in Italy and wanted revenge.
On the way to Normandy, Guarnere saw "constant flashes" of gunfire below. "If you ever saw a Fourth of July celebration, magnify that 10,000 times.
"I couldn't wait to get off the plane," he said. "I killed every German I could. That's why they called me 'Wild Bill.'
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
I have the complete DVD set of Band of Brothers and watch it every year. I will be purchasing The Pacific when it comes available.
“’I cherish the memories of a question my grandson asked me the other day when he said, Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?’ Grandpa said ‘No… but I served in a company of heroes…’”
Great post....and Winters definitely deserves this.
Such m en are fighting for us today.
God keep them in His hands.
Diddo. My Father-in-law was with the airborne. I don’t know which division, but he made the jump in Italy during operation Husky. He got got shot down and woke up in the hospital 3 days later. The only thing that saved him was his Sargent pushing him out of the plane and his static line which opened his parachute.
Found this link if anyone is interested. I did not verify it, but it appears to be where you can send donations.
So where do we contribute?
bump
I would not watch it again.
However, we are such big fans of “Band of Brothers” that we wore out the first DVD set and had to purchase another. All I needed was to read this wonderful article to motivate me to watch it today.
I don't think that once word spreads, they will have too much trouble reaching their 400k goal for the monument.
And your are right. . . to this day such men and women have stepped forward to defend our nation. It's just a shame that the POTUS couldn't be bothered to drop by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Memorial Day to commemorate the sacrifices of our young who answered in the time of need.
Don’t forget the 82nd, they were there also. Airborne was a dangerous way to go in WWII.
BUMP.
When it said Philly in the title, I knew it had to be “Wild Bill.”
“I don’t have to tell you the story. You all know it. Only two kinds of people are gonna stay on this beach: those that are already dead and those that are gonna die. Now get off your butts. You guys are the Fighting 29th.”
Bump.
Still is.
Watch for the movie “RESTEPO” - now showing in the larger cities around the country - wider distribution this summer.
The writer, Sebastian Junger , (”Perfect Storm”)and award winning photojournalist, Tim Hetherington, embedded with the famous - and soon to become more so - 1735d AIRBORNE, 2-503rd, BATTLE CO, for 5 months each of the platoon's insane 15 month deployment in the high Hindu Kush mts. of no.east Afghanistan, aka, “The Most Dangerous Place on Earth.”
As Junger described it last week at a book signing of his companion book, “WAR”, “The most dangerous and toughest assignments, as I found out, are reserved for the Army's elite units. The 173rd Airborne is one of the Army's best fighting forces, and within the 173rd, one of the best fighting units ever put together is 2nd Platoon, Battle Company of the 503rd . Of all the fighting that occurred in Afghanistan during the time I was there, 1/5 of the fighting took place in the Korengal. And that 1/5 was fought by only 130 men. The rest of the 70,000 NATO Force fought the other 4/5ths.”
Battle Co.s little firebase that they pickaxed (by night) out of a mountainside and fought by day - over 1,000 firefights - they name “Restrepo” after one of their first fallen. Battle co. is the most highly decorated of the Afghan war - and Many of the soldiers were decorated - in the valley - by Admiral Mullen, personally, not a usual occurrence.
Beside Junger’s book that just came out, and the movie - which will also be aired the fall by Nat’l Geo - with DVD and ebook and a photo book to follow, ABC did a documentary on them i the fall of 2007 (can be seen on youTube), 2 articles in Vanity Fair, a front page article in NYTimes mag - etc.
The movie's ‘stars’ are the men themselves, the ‘script’ is as it happens, putting you boots on the ground with the troops from firefight to battle to ambush to boredom to deprivations you will not believe. But all will know BATTLE COMPANY/ (no politics, no agenda, no Hollywood, no Brass - this is WAR as it is for the soldier.)
Trailer: scroll down
http://www.spike.com/blog/new-restrepo-trailer/95952
an interview with Junger - ABC
about the movie, the book and “Brothers in Arms”
http://www.hulu.com/watch/148377/abc-good-morning-america-sebastian-junger-how-soldiers-bond-in-war
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