Sergeant Talbert was in the hospital at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, on September 30, 1945. He wrote a letter to Winters. He was no Webster as a writer, but he wrote from the heart and he spoke for every man who ever served in Easy Company.
He said he wished they could get together to talk, as there were a lot of things he wanted to tell Winters. “The first thing I will try to explain… Dick, you are loved and will never be forgotten by any soldier that ever served under you or I should say with you because that is the way you led. You are to me the greatest soldier I could ever hope to meet.
”A man can get something from war that is impossible to acquire anyplace else. I always seemed to strengthen my self-confidence or something. I don’t know why I’m telling you this. You know all that.
”Well I will cut this off for now. You are the best friend I ever had and I only wish we could have been on a different basis. You were my ideal, and motor in combat. The little Major we both knew summed you up in two words, ‘the most brave and courageous soldier he ever knew.’ And I respected his judgement very much. He was a great soldier too, and I informed him you were the greatest. Well you know why I would follow you into hell. When I was with you I knew everything was absolutely under control.”
Source:
Ambrose, Stephen Edward. “The Soldier’s Dream Life.” Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2004. 290. Print.
Further Reading:
Staff Sergeant Floyd M. Talbert
No comments, yet...