By Chris Langlois (Chrisdfw) (12.239.86.117) on Thursday, February 28, 2002 - 12:22 pm:

Address by

GOVERNOR TOM RIDGE

Band of Brothers Pennsylvania Premiere

Thursday, July 26, 2001

Philadelphia, PA



In September 1943, a group of soldiers sailed from New York City, bound for Europe. They watched from the ship’s stern as the Statue of Liberty grew smaller and smaller and finally disappeared from view.

They were bound for a continent where a terrible war was raging -- a world war that would determine whether liberty’s torch would be extinguished for hundreds of millions of people.

Those soldiers were from the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, including the men of E Company – “Easy Company.”

They would eventually parachute into Normandy, France -- into the very nation that gave us that Statue of Liberty years earlier. Because of their actions during World War II, today the flame of freedom burns brighter today than ever before throughout the world.

I am humbled today to present the Medal of the Jubilee of Liberty to five soldiers of Easy Company who fought in Normandy:

William Guarnere of Philadelphia.
Forrest Guth of the state of Delaware.
Joseph Lesniewski of Erie.
Rod Strohl of Orefield, Pennsylvania.
Dick Winters of Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Congratulations. And thank you all for coming. I want to take this opportunity to also thank Edward “Babe” Heffron, who wanted to be with us today, but couldn’t. Babe, we’re all praying for you. We wish you a speedy recovery.

Ladies and gentlemen, to a man, these soldiers will deny that they’re heroes. Their humility won’t let them. As Governor, however, I am under no such constraints! The men of Easy Company are heroes.

The saga of Easy Company defies imagination. If a Hollywood screenwriter had written it, it would have been dismissed as exaggeration, hyperbole, impossible – simply too far-fetched. Fortunately, Hollywood has decided to go with the real thing. HBO has turned Stephen Ambrose’s book Band of Brothers into a 10-part mini-series. We will watch the first two episodes shortly.

First, let me offer you a little background. The story of Easy Company began at Camp Toccoa in Georgia, where a group of young men volunteered for an elite paratrooper unit. So elite and well-trained that they would break the world’s record by marching 118 miles in 75 hours, in full combat gear.

Don’t let the name fool you – none of this company’s assignments were ever easy!

On D-Day, this elite unit parachuted behind enemy lines at Normandy and destroyed a German machine gun battery, saving countless lives at Utah Beach. As Ambrose wrote, the paratroopers liked to say that Hitler made only one mistake in building his vaunted “Atlantic Wall” -- he forgot to put a roof on it!

From there, it was on to Holland to secure the bridges at Zon and Eindhoven. By then the company of 154 had suffered 120 casualties – but not one soldier had been taken prisoner.

Later, Easy Company fought alongside 600,000 American troops in the largest engagement in U.S. history -- the Battle of the Bulge. It was a terrible fight, Hitler’s last gasp in the cold winter of 1944. Bill Guarnere said, “I thought the whole world was shooting at me at once.”

But once again, Easy Company proved its valor, holding the town of Bastogne for the Allies despite heavy casualties. Ambrose summed up the experience by writing, “There were no unwounded men at Bastogne.”

For its heroics at Bastogne, the 101st Airborne received from General Eisenhower the Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation, the first time an entire Army division had been so cited. Eisenhower said, prophetically, “From now on, the spotlight will beat on you with particular brilliance.”

Finally, Easy Company became the first Allied soldiers to enter Hitler’s remote Eagle’s Nest retreat in the German Alps. From D-Day to then took less than a year. Easy Company’s total casualties: 150 percent.

So what made this unit special, besides the training? I believe it was the caring. It was an outfit full of guys who, in the words of Babe Heffron, “thought it was [their] job to take a shot for you.” It was a unit in which a private would apologize to his commanding officer for getting hit by German gunfire. It was an outfit that believed the only heroes were the ones who never made it back. The men of Easy Company lived their motto, “We Stand Alone, Together.”

I might add, they continued to live it as civilians. Sometimes the media callously describe the veterans of World War II as having fallen into obscurity. Well, let me tell you, they are not obscure to their families. They are not obscure to their neighbors. They are not obscure to their communities. And I guarantee that the 1.3 million citizen-soldiers from Pennsylvania, and the more than 300,000 who still live here, have not been obscure to their Commonwealth.

We all should thank Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and everyone at HBO involved in turning Stephen Ambrose’s book into a major mini-series. The most powerful peacetime weapon in the world today is the movie camera. And you’ve used it to ensure that the name Easy Company will never be forgotten.

Let me add that I hope high schools introduce Band of Brothers into their curriculum. Like Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List, Band of Brothers deserves to become a valuable learning tool to help future generations learn about the “Greatest Generation.”

I want to conclude by reading from a letter Dick Winters wrote to Stephen Ambrose. “When the men of Company E shared their memories with you,” Winters wrote, “none of us ever dreamed we would end up sharing our memories with the whole world.”

Well, the world would be a very different place without Easy Company. And now the whole world will know just whom to thank.

Thank you.

By philly paratrooper on Monday, September 17, 2001 - 12:48 pm:

I enjoy watching the "Band of Brothers" series. By being a fellow paratrooper (82nd Airborne Division and in the 555th Airborne Association), I am proud of these veterans. If it weren't for them, their courage, sacrifice and honor, airborne would never be the same.

With the situation with the terrorists activities within the past week, it is guys like the ones portrayed in "Band of Brothers" that defended our freedom in World War Two makes us proud that we're americans. To wave our flags and let no one pushes the U.S around.

Once you're a paratrooper, you're in a fraternity of brotherhood that no one could take away. I'm also glad that by being from Philadelphia, PA (well represented in Band of Brothers), there is a large contengency of paratrooper in the area.

Great movie. "Airborne, all the way"!!!

By Thomas Patton Crawford (Gr8fulson) (63.207.25.42) on Thursday, February 28, 2002 - 02:53 pm:

Address by

GOVERNOR TOM RIDGE

Is that Tom Ridge, our current Chief of Homeland Security?

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