Hero

I think the word "hero" has been diminished over the years.  The word is over overused and hardly ever applied correctly. I don't think an athlete's performance on the field makes them a hero.  Actors are not heroes for the movies they make. Most radio personalities, politicians, doctors, and teachers are not heroes.  So what is a hero?  Webster's says it is "someone distinguished by exceptional courage and nobility and strength".  By definition, Dick Winters is a true hero.

I was made aware of Major Dick Winters when I read about the HBO series Band of Brothers  which aired in 2001.  The series chronicled the story of Winters leading his men of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, or Easy Company.  Dick Winters changed history.  On D-Day, Winters led an attack on a German gun battery, destroying the weapons firing at the American troops on Normandy's Utah Beach.  He and his company liberated a Nazi concentration camp, and later captured Hitler's mountaintop retreat.  For his service, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest award for valor.

But Winters always played down his heroism. In the HBO series, he recalled a question that a fellow veteran was asked by his grandson. Here's how Winters told it: " 'Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?' Grandpa said, 'No, but I served in a company of heroes.' "

Winters wasn't sure he would live through the war. He told writer Stephen Ambrose that he knelt down and prayed after D-Day. That comment inspired a scene in Band of Brothers.
Portraying Winters, actor Damian Lewis says, "If somehow I manage to get home again, I promised God and myself that I would find a quiet piece of land someplace and spend the rest of my life in peace."

Winters did keep his promise to God.  He came back and quietly raised a family in Hershey, PA. On January 2nd, 2011, Major Dick Winters passed away. Rest in peace Dick Winters.  You were truly an American hero.