Sgt. Floyd Talbert had wounds and scars, which he handled without difficulty, and memories, which overwhelmed him. He became a drifter and a drinker. He made a living of sorts as a fisherman, hunter, trapper, and guide in northern California. He had a series of heart attacks.
Talbert was one of the few members of the [E] company who just dropped out of sight. In 1980 Gordon enlisted the aid of his Congressman and of George Luz’s son Steve, to locate Talbert. Sgt. Mike Ranney joined the search. Eventually they located him in Redding, California, and persuaded him to attend the 1981 company reunion in San Diego.
Ranney passed around his address. Winters and others wrote him. In his three-page handwritten reply to Winters, Talbert reminisced about their experiences. “Do you remember the time you were leading us into Carentan? Seeing you in the middle of that road wanting to move was too much!... Do you recall when we were pulling back in Holland? Lt. Peacock threw his carbine onto the road. He would not move. Honest to God I told him to retrieve the carbine and move or I would shoot him. He did as I directed. I liked him, he was a sincere and by the book officer, but not a soldier. As long as he let me handle the men he and I got along alright.
”Dick this can go on and on. I have never discussed these things with anyone on this earth. The things we had are damn near sacred to me.” He signed off, “You Devoted Soldier forever.”
Talbert enclosed a recent photograph. He looked like a mountain man. In his reply, Winters told him to shave off the beard and get his hair cut if he intended to come to Dan Diego. He did, but he still showed up wearing tattered hunting clothes. The first morning, Gordon and Don Moone took him to a men’s store and bought him new clothes. Before the year was out, he died.
Gordon wrote his epitaph. “Almost all of the men of Company E suffered wounds of various severity. Some of us limp, some have impaired vision or hearing, but almost without exception we have modified our lives to accommodate the injury. Tab continued in daily conflict with a demon within his breast. He paid a dear price for his service to his country. He could not have given more without laying down his life.”
Dick Winters paid him an ultimate tribute: “If I had to pick out just one man to be with me on a mission in combat, it would be Talbert.”
Source:
Ambrose, Stephen Edward. “Postwar Careers.” Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2004. 298. Print.
Further Reading:
Staff Sergeant Floyd M. Talbert
E Company, 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division / “Screaming Eagles”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Company,_506th_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)
Corporal Walter Scott Gordon Jr.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Gordon_(veteran)
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