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November 28,
2001
Honorable Rick Santorum
U.S. Senate
120 Russell Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-3802
Dear Senator Santorum:
I am a retired U.S. Army Colonel with 30 years commissioned
service. Prior to my retirement last June, I served as the
chief of Military History, U.S. Military Academy at West
Point. The purpose of this letter is to solicit your support
in correcting a 57-year injustice to one of your
constituents, Major Dick Winters of Hershey, Pennsylvania.
You may recall major Winters from Stephen Ambrose's Band of
Brothers and the recent HBO mini-series of the same name.
During World War II, Winters commander Easy Company, 2nd
Battalion, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division. As with most
members of "The Greatest Generation," Winters served
honorably and dedicated his life to defending our way of
life. Thought he earned the Distinguished Service Cross for
his actions on D-Day, I respectfully request your support in
up-grading his Distinguished Service Cross to the Medal of
Honor, our nation's highest award for valor.
A brief recapitulation of Winters' heroism under fire is in
order. Landing at Ste. Merc-Eglise on D-Day, 1st Lieutenant
Winters assembled his company (the company commander had
been killed in the airborne drop) and joined his battalion
in the village of Le Grande-Chemin just three kilometers
from Ste. Maric-du-Mont, just to the rear of Utah Beach.
There Winters, now acting company commander, received orders
to destroy a four-gun German battery near a French farmhouse
named Brecourt Manor, which was wrecking havoc on the 4th
Infantry Division landing at Utah. With only 12 men, Winters
set out to destroy the battery and its 50-man platoon
infantry. Carefully reconnecting the enemy position under
fire, Winters directed several soldiers to lay down covering
fire, while he led the charge straight down the hedgerow
leading to the first gun. When one of his men's weapon
jammed, Winters yelled, "Follow me!" and assaulted the first
gun. Repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire and firing
his M-1, he destroyed the first gun. In the process, Winters
killed two Germans as the remainder of the crew fled. Now in
the connecting trench, Winters crawled forward and looked in
the direction of the second gun. Seeing two enemy soldiers
setting up a machine gun, he fired and shot them both. Now
it was time to assault the second gun. Leaving three men to
hold the first gun, Winters led the other five in a wild
charge down the trench, throwing grenades ahead of them,
firing their rifles. As he approached the gun, the crew fled
and was cut down. Next Winters charged the third gun and
captured it. Finally reinforcements arrived from a sister
company and they took the last gun. Now under intense direct
fire, Winters ordered a withdrawal after destroying all the
guns with TNT. As was his custom, Winters was last to leave.
With only two men, what amounted to a squad. Winters had
destroyed a German battery that was looking straight down
causeway No. 2 and onto Utah Beach. Winters' casualties were
four dead, two wounded. He and his men had killed fifteen
Germans, wounded many more, and taken twelve prisoners; in
short, they had wiped out the fifty-man platoon of elite
German paratroops defending the guns and scattered the gun
crews. As Ambrose summarizes in Band of Brothers (p.84),
Winters had done everything right, from scouting the
position, to laying down a base of covering fire, to putting
his best men on the challenging missions, to leading the
charge personally at exactly the right moment. It was in
personally leading the attack, repeatedly exposing himself
to direct enemy fire, and for conspicuous gallantry and
intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and
beyond the call of duty outside Brecourt Manor on D-Day that
Winters merits favorable reconsideration for the President
of the United States of America, authorized by Act of
Congress, March 3, 1863, to award in the name of The
Congress the Medal of Honor to first Lieutenant Dick
Winters, United States Army.
Colonel Robert Sink, the 506th regimental commander,
initially recommended Winters receive the Medal of Honor,
but his recommendation was down-graded to the DSC, which
General Omar Bradley presented to Winters. Having studied
this engagement for several years and in reviewing the
combat record of the company, I believe Winters action at
Brecourt deserves reconsideration for three reasons. First,
Major General Maxwell Taylor, the commander of the 101st
Airborne division, placed an artificial limit of a single
MOH for the Normandy campaign. In the 101st that went to
Lieutenant Colonel Robert Cole for leading a bayonet charge.
Thought Winters displayed conspicuous gallantry under fire
at the risk of his own life, Taylor's decision ensured
Winters and other deserving soldiers would not be properly
recognized. Second, European Theater historian S.L.A
Marshall misreported the action at Brecourt in his book
Night Drop: The American Airborne Invasion in Normandy (p.
281). Marshall erroneously reported that Winters "hiked to
Utah Beach, borrowed four Sherman (tanks) from the 4th
Infantry Division, and sicked them on the enemy guns. When
the armor wiped out the battery, the (Winters' 2nd)
battalion arose and went." Marshall simply got in wrong.
When he conducted his interviews in July 1944, he relied on
hastily written operational reports that would have better
explained Winters' attack on the battery. The guns were
indeed destroyed, not by armor, but by a direct infantry
attack personally led by Lieutenant Winters. Last, but not
least, Winters'' own after-action report of the attack
compiled on June 9, 1944, down-played his personal role in
the engagement. Crediting a number of soldiers, who
certainly critical in the unit's success, Winters refused to
mention his own name, confining his summary to "Mission
completed, we rejoined our battalion, which had departed
after the four 88's were destroyed."
Senator Santorum, please support this request for
reconsideration for the MOH while Dick Winters is still with
us. His intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above
and beyond the call of duty on June 6, 1944, his Fighting
spirit and his daring leadership under fire inspired his men
and exemplify the highest traditions of military service. I
will gladly assist the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Army in any
additional research and assistance that hey may require in
support of this request. Now is the time to honor this
gallant officer whose selfless service to the United States
and to the men of Easy Company, 506th PIR inspire us all. On
a final note, I assure you that I am making this request on
my own accord, with no knowledge of Winters, because I
firmly believe that his intrepid leadership under fire the
merits the thanks of a grateful nation.
Very respectfully
signed: Cole C. Kingseed
Cole C. Kingseed
Colonel, U.S. Army (Ret.)
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