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Stephen & Moira
Ambrose
February 6, 2002
Colonel Robert Sink, the commander of the 506th Parachute
Infantry Regiment, recommended Lt. Richard Winters for the
Medal of Honor for his actions on D-Day, June 6, 1944, in
Normandy. But because Maj. Gen. Maxwell Taylor, commander of
the 101st Airborne Division had placed an arbitrary limit of
one MOH for the division in Normandy, and because Lt. Col.
Robert Cole was the man picked to receive the award, Winters
was down-graded to the Distinguished Service Cross (which
was presented to him by General Omar Bradley). The time has
come to rectify this situation.
That Winters deserves to receive the MOH is clear to all. At
dawn he gathered up some of his men and hurried his troops
to Brecourt Manor, where he planned and then lead an attack
on German batteries. The men followed him because they
trusted him to plan and execute every mission with a minimum
of casualties or loss of life. As always he led from the
front. What he did a Brecourt Manor opened Utah Beach and
was in the highest tradition of the U.S. Army. As company
commander, later battalion commander, he was outstanding at
Carentan, in Holland, at Bastogne, and elsewhere through to
the end of the war.
I wish to associate myself in support of the wonderful
letter Col. Cole Kingseed wrote to Senator Rick Santorum on
Nov. 28, 2001.
Of all the leaders and heroes I have studied and interviewed
- including some two dozen MOH recipients - none can surpass
Dick Winters for courage, resolve, wisdom, concern for his
men, determination to get the job done, the havoc he wrought
on the German companies and battalions, risk-taking, and
accomplishments.
signed: Stephen E. Ambrose
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