Remembering the Biggest Brother

There will be a public memorial service at the Hershey Theater this Saturday at 2 pm to honor Major Dick Winters.  Winters passed away on January 2nd and was buried on January 8th in a private service. The event begins at 2 pm and tickets are free, but you must call the Hershey Theater in advance.

WGAL TV will televise the event live at 2 pm.  They will also air a 2003 interview titled “Duty Bound: A Tribute to Dick Winters” prior to the service at 1:30 p.m. on March 19.

Winters and the members of Easy Company were immortalized in Stephen Ambrose's book, Band of Brothers, and the HBO miniseries of the same name.

Rest in Peace Major Winters the Biggest Brother

Major Dick Winters pass away on January 2nd.  His story was made famous by the miniseries Band of Brothers. Already in his 80's when the series was released, Winters reluctantly became famous internationally.

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.

I personally never got to meet Major Winters.  The closest I came were conversation between myself and author and Iwo Jima veteran Dick Wheeler.  Wheeler and Winters became friends through history and actually didn't live far from each other.  While Winters was an army officer and Wheeler was a Marine corporal, both shared the bond of combat.

Major Winters gave Dick Wheeler a copy of his book,  Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters,  inside was penned "To Dick Wheeler, Hang tough because we are just hanging on."

Dick Wheeler passed away in October of 2008.