By Chris Langlois (Chrisdfw) on Sunday, September 02, 2001 - 07:13 pm:

From our good friend Col. John A. Smith, USAF (Ret.). He is the brother of Burr Smith of Easy Company.

For those of you who missed the Los Angeles premiere of Band of Brothers, here are my recollections:

The trip was whirlwindish, a bit much for this aging bod, and the premiere was - in 3 words - an incredible experience. Even more incredible was talking with several of the survivors who were with my brother in the Normandy Invasion, the Holland Invasion, and Bastogne.

I had printed a page with 6 pictures of Burr (Robert Smith) and some of his buddies and carried that with me, as well as Susan (Burr's daughter), her husband, Scott (Burr's son) and myself wearing a 4x5 portrait on our lapel of Burr in uniform with the 101st Airborne patch, taken by my dad in 1942. I'd walk up to Don Malarkey, Bill Guarnere, Carwood Lipton, Don Knight, or Jim Alley and they'd take one look at the portrait and say, "Jeesus H Christ, that's Burr Smith!" (Remember those names when you see "Band of Brothers" on HBO) One of the survivors, a charming Italiano-type guy named Frank Perconte, went out the door with Burr on D-Day, was wounded on the same day in the battle for Carentan, was in the same platoon in Holland, and finally was wounded on the same day outside Foy in the battle for Bastogne. We spent a lot of time talking with Bill Guarnere, Don Malarkey and Frank Perconte because they seemed to know my brother best and were able to relate some rather, uh, revealing anecdotes about him.

After meeting Hanks and Spielburg, a lot of the actors and most of the E Company survivors at the mob scene outside Hollywood Bowl, stuffing ourselves with food and booze and listening to 'N Sink and a couple of other bands playing WW-II Era music, we and enough others to fill the entire lower half were ushered into Hollywood Bowl. It seats 12,000, so make your guess. We had Center Aisle seats and a perfect view of everything, although (perhaps luckily) about 20 rows up in the bowl.

As soon as all were seated, the Los Angeles Youth Symphony Orchestra of about 60 instruments played the theme music from Band of Brothers, conducted by the composer Michael Kamen, with the huge screen behind them bearing a giant size patch of the 101st Airborne Divison. Hanks and Spielburg gave short introductory speeches, then introduced FDR's and Ike's granddaughters, who both gave rather soupy little patriotic speeches that could have been included in the WSJ woman's critique of BoB.

The preliminaries over, they ran the D-Day segment of the miniseries and had everyone sitting on the edge of their seat. The most realistic damn portrayal of combat, flak, terror and mayhem I have EVER seen. The sound system in the Bowl is only fantastic, and they had it turned up to MAX for the entire showing. I could FEEL the flak fragments pinging through the C-47's and I swear I could smell cordite, it was that realistic. It made "Saving Ryan's Privates" and "The Wrongest Day" pale in comparison. After the running of that segment, I can guarantee you there wasn't a dry eye in all of Hollywood Bowl. Anyone who misses even one segment on HBO should get on the boat with Elec Baldwin et al and leave the country.

Right after the segment ran, Hanks and Spielburg spoke a few closing words. The Grand Finale was a fireworks show that made New Year's and 4th of July fireworks in Las Vegas look sort of smalltime, everyone standing to sing "The Star Spangled Banner" when the fireworks became an immense American flag.

While in L.A. I was given a copy of the Special "Band of Brothers" edition of WW-II magazine, now on sale in major bookstores, and read a quote from Dick Winters, Commander of E of the 2nd Bn, 506th, saying it was Robert Smith's gift to the early Toccoa arrivals of a box of cookies my mother sent him that first banded the company of brothers together. Rather moving reading, for me. I was also given a CD of the music from Band of Brothers and have it running on the CD as I write this.

It was a night I will never forget, and I and thousands of others know now what Currahee! means. My thanks go to HBO for doing it right.

John A. Smith

By Michael H. Sobel on Saturday, September 15, 2001 - 02:43 am:

I am the second son of Herbert M. Sobel Any info re: my father would be appreciated.
Aloha,
Michael H. Sobel

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